Naruto: Blood Ties
by HunterBerserkerWolf
Summary: When Naruto was young, he came into contact with a substance that would make him different, make him monsterous. Now that this has been unleashed, how will the Ninja World deal with him? Can they even stop him? Or will a new enemy threaten to cover the world in eternal fire?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Story time children!

I do not own Naruto or any possible references to any other thing owned by someone else. I make no profit off of this story

Chapter 1

A sunny blonde child panted as he continued to run, glancing behind him every so often as he held his bleeding arm with his little hand. He was terrified, running in fear. His blue eyes were wide, tears streaking down his face and cutting through the dirt and blood, revealing three scar-like markings on either side of his cheeks.

He was Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's container for the Kyuubi no Yoko, though he didn't know the second fact.

It was young Naruto's fifth birthday and for the first time, he ran squarely into a problem. The villagers had attacked him with fists and broken bottles. Some wounds he healed faster than others, but the one on his arm, slashed open with a bottle of booze while he had been held down and then having the wound pissed on, it wasn't healing like the others and still bled profusely.

Naruto panted as he ran through the trees, the darkness began to close in on him. The trees seemed to be distorted figures, making Naruto want to run all the more. He was terrified, he was cold, and he was hurt. "Jiji, where are you?" he cried softly as he kept running.

Naruto's foot caught on a root and he was sent down to the ground in the dark forest, hitting a hill and rolling down it, hitting his head and having a few barely closed wounds ripped open. He fell off a cliff and dropped about ten feet before continuing down the hill, eventually coming to rest at the base of a tree. He was lying in something wet, face down and something wet was dripping on him from the tree, but he couldn't bring himself to pull himself up.

Drip, drip, drip. His life blood was leaving him, but it was a drop compared to his regenerative abilities, honed by countless centuries of combat. Eyes blearily opened, he was in pain. He had failed in his fight, but he would live on. A large head raised up to look down at his body, a tree branch pierced his chest, through the heart, a second one pierced through his stomach, a third pierced his left thigh, and a forth pierced his right knee.

Wounds he would heal from, but he needed time to feed, time to lick his wounds and then attempt once more to defeat the abomination that his child had become. A large furred and clawed hand rose up to the most pressing of spears. He broke the one that pierced his chest, his strength more than enough to snap the wood, even a branch as thick as his fist. He drew himself off of it, wincing in agony.

His hands snapped the next one, the one piercing his stomach. He knew what he would do next would hurt, yet it had to be done. He snapped the branch at his knee off and he fell towards his right side. He roared in agony, a sound that sent flocks of birds flying, as he felt the branch rip through his left leg, ripping through muscle and flesh to tear away. He fell onto the ground, collapsing in a heap.

The figure rolled himself over onto his front, allowing his wings, massive bat like appendages, to not be in as much pain. Gods, he hadn't been in as much pain as he was since he had fought the Sage of Six Paths. He clawed himself away from that tree, feeling his body knitting itself back together. He lashed his hand into a burrow under a tree, snapping the neck of his prey.

He pulled the dead fox out and bared its throat to his maw. His mouth opened to reveal several long sharp pointed teeth, designed for tearing through meat. But he had four over extended canines, made for piercing flesh. He sank his teeth into the fox's throat, drinking deeply of the animal blood. It would not help as much as he would like, but it helped him heal the most grievous of his wounds.

He placed the fox back into its burrow before he used some dirt to bury it, giving the creature a small amount of respect. He stood up to his full height, an imposing eight and a half feet. Though, that had more to do with his nature, his constantly shifted form, than it had to do with his genetics.

The creature, appearing to be some sort of bastard hybrid between a wolf and a bat, looked around the clearing now that his grievous wounds were not so threatening. He should just fly away, be done with this place. But he caught a faint scent, a human scent.

He glanced to the tree he had been impaled upon and began to walk towards it, circling around to the other side. He found the young boy and frowned a bit. "He's malnourished." He said in a deep gravelly voice. He rolled the blonde over, seeing the front of the blonde coated in his blood made him a little curious.

The creature knelt beside the boy and began to check his form. "Hmm, he has chakra so most certainly human." He was from before the Sage, as many other creatures were, so he had no chakra coils of his own. There were a few, those turned after the Sage and the evolution of Chakra, that did have chakra coils, but no creature would change a boy so young and weak. There was no purpose to it.

The creature noticed something that caused him to frown. "He's wounded…" he looked to the wounds the boy had, some healing much faster than others. The transference of blood was dangerous. "But he is not giving spasms, his heart rate isn't accelerating." He touched the boy's forehead. "Not even feverish. He is neither accepting, nor rejecting the virus. Most curious…"

The creature poised his hand like a spear, finger tips on the boy's chest right over the heart. He could drive his hand up to his elbow into solid granite with nothing but brute force. The boy's chest wouldn't slow his hand down. He should kill the blonde, just to be safe. He could not allow his son's tyranny to pass to another.

His fingers curled into a fist though. He could not bring himself to kill the child. Countless he had killed but he had never crossed that line. He had never killed a child before. He would not start now, he could not start now.

He raised the boy up and leaned him against a tree before standing up. He could not afford his son's tyranny which meant that the blood on the ground needed to be diluted so that it could not affect anyone.

His blood had a 1 in every 100 chance of infection, the rest dying from the pollution in their veins. His son's blood had a one hundred percent chance of infecting whoever was polluted with it, except for him. He was immune to the effects, likely because he was the Progenitor.

The shadows around the trees thickened. He had cast an illusion of darkness, not a Genjutsu, around the trees to make them seem more terrifying than they had been while also making all sources of light be less illuminating around the area. He looked skyward and he began to rotate his hand. His amber eyes turned black as he tapped into his magic, magic from the time before the Juubi.

The clouds swirled as he rotated his hand, they began to thicken in the distance as he heard the distant rumble of thunder. Flashes of lightning began; he was conjuring a powerful storm that would rain for several days.

As the first droplets of water started, the creature reached out with his senses. He could feel people coming his way, people with large Chakra reserves. He moved the boy over to another tree as the down pour started. The blood was soon washed away in the water. He still had one last thing to do. He raised his clawed hand skyward before slashing it down. A bolt of lightning struck the tree he had been impaled upon, causing it to catch fire.

He then began to move off, his larger form lumbering between the trees and disappearing into the darkness. No one would be able to track him in this storm. He was a ghost of a time long passed, his Legend almost forgotten and his Legacy slowly dwindling.

ANBU arrived on the scene and a teenager with black hair and red eyes looked at the young demon vessel that was propped against a tree away from the one on fire. He motioned, with a twitch of his fingers, to the ANBU and they made quick work of the fire, putting it out while he went over to Naruto. He checked the blonde over before bending down and picking him up.

He knew this attack, the first of its kind, would not be tolerated. He felt a shiver down his spine, a hint of fear at what the Sandaime Hokage would do. The Uchiha Prodigy was skilled, powerful even, but Sarutobi Hiruzen was his boss for a very specific reason.

Sarutobi could whip his ass.

Itachi carried the blonde back to the village with his escort. The villagers would be punished to the full extent of the law.

Elsewhere, a woman leaned against the frame of a window, her arm stuck out into the rain. She could feel her Progenitor's magic in the water, in the air. She was the only one who could. She had felt the fight earlier between her Progenitor and his child.

"What is this feeling Father?" she whispered as she watched the rain come down. "What did you do here after Brother left?" she asked no one. They were not her real Father or Brother, not even close. But her Progenitor gave her this gift, and curse, and the others that he made shared in it. They were family to an extent. She knew that her Brother was far too tyrannical though.

Her red eyes flashed as she watched an ANBU squad enter the village. She recognized the child in the arms of the one in the center, but she could feel a difference that they couldn't. "You have made another father, a child so young?" she asked before she took her own form and slipped into the shadows. The draw of another made it hard to resist the urge to shift, so she simply went with the flow, knowing she could change back whenever she wanted.

Deep inside Naruto's mind, another entity was taking notice. At first, it had simply thought the boy had gotten an infection of some sort and it had attempted to destroy it with its chakra. But then it came back and it took more chakra to destroy the infection this time.

The creature was a massive red-orange fox with nine tails that sat up as the infection was sensed a third time. This was strange. The fox blasted the infection with its chakra once more, and it took even more to eradicate the virus. "**Such a resilient pest,"** The fox spoke in a booming voice. The virus was back once more and it blasted it once more with Chakra.

Each amount was miniscule at best, regenerated almost as soon as they were used, but it was still a problem. No infection should be this powerful. The fox put a hand on the ground; fingers spread out to show it had a clawed hand instead of a paw. It moved to sit in a meditative stance. "**But it has been a long time since I have done anything, this could prove to be entertaining if the virus continues to grow."** The fox was momentarily worried about its container but decided against it. The weak whelp would get stronger as the fox used its chakra more and more. The container would hopefully grow strong enough either that the fox could twist it to escape, or strong enough that even while captured its name would be feared due to its container.

The fox continued to blast out its chakra at increasing intervals as was necessary. It stilled itself except for this repetitive task and it began to draw deep, through its container's seal, absorbing Natural Chakra. Black markings streaked all through the fox's fur, showing its ascension to Sage Mode. Its Father, the Sage of Six Paths, had taught it this in case it was ever necessary.

The fox paused when it blasted out the chakra twice more. The first had been with the Natural Chakra mixed with its own Chakra. The second time had been the same. The virus thrived with Natural Chakra, growing stronger at an impressive rate.

The fox cut off the Sage Mode quickly. It would have to use it sparingly then, this virus was wild, untamed and it sought to take over its container. "**Such an interesting turn of events."** It said.

Hiruzen was livid as he listened to the people bitch at his decision to detain the ten person mob that had attacked Naruto, the first mob and if he had anything to say it would be the only mob. "Enough!" he roared out, he would not tolerate these bastards doing as they damned well felt. "I will not reverse my decision to have them detained!"

"But Hokage-sama, surely you must-" One of the Civilians' lawyers started.

"No!" Sarutobi roared out, surprising everyone in the chambers. "I must do what is right to protect this village! So far I have each of these people listed with a count of child abuse, attempted murder, assault, and terrorism!" Even Danzo, known for his rather war like ways, raised an eyebrow at that. Terrorism charges did not come easy, ever.

"On what grounds are they being charged with Terrorism Hiruzen, if I may ask?" Danzo asked. He had always coveted the position of Hokage. When Tobirama, the Nidaime Hokage, had chosen Hiruzen, Danzo had graciously stepped into the background. He criticized Sarutobi when necessary, but he wouldn't intentionally weaken Konoha. A few of his dealings had made a few enemies, but that was the life of a Shinobi. He would still support Sarutobi.

But he also did work from the shadows, work that Sarutobi knew was necessary but he didn't want to have to ask it of his regular Shinobi. So, Danzo made such missions never appear on Sarutobi's desk and he had his own forces, not even a fiftieth of Konoha's forces, settle them.

He didn't always agree with Sarutobi's decisions, but then again they were both only human.

Sarutobi looked over to Danzo, his shadow. Sarutobi knew quite easily that their roles could have been reversed. "Terrorism for attacking Naruto, if the boy had died he would have unleashed the Kyuubi's chakra in an explosion that is estimated to have the force to turn Konoha and the surrounding area into a crater." It was because the Kyuubi's own Chakra hadn't quite settled in yet, the Yondaime's notes said somewhere along the lines of six or seven years. Naruto would be a bomb until then, but the people didn't need to know those facts.

The attending people in the chambers looked a little paler at the words. If they had been enemy Shinobi, they had attacked a potential bomb, a potential bomb with the force to vaporize their home and shift the balance drastically.

"Guilty," Danzo said, casting his decision on the matter. No defense could come up with a reason good enough for such a thing to happen.

There were soon a few agreements from the other members. The offenders were soon scheduled for a public execution where they would be killed by Sarutobi himself.

Years passed and Sarutobi didn't have to execute anyone else, the first occurrence showing people that he was still the village's leader for a reason. A high powered fire Ninjutsu had utterly laid waste to Naruto's attackers. Sarutobi was unable to stop people from over-charging the blonde or ignoring him, but he would not tolerate those that would attack the blonde.

Naruto went through the years and his life had been utter hell. He tried to make up for it by being loud, boisterous, everything he could be to draw attention to himself. How could he not desire any form of attention? It was better than being left alone in his opinion.

But Naruto also became rather… reckless. He had driven a kunai into his own hand, threatening to bleed himself out to try and make an oath to never back down once more. Thankfully, his sensei had helped him not die from that idiot move. Then he had charged down Momochi Zabuza in an attempt to get his headband back. He managed it, but it wasn't the most brilliant of moves. He had raced into Haku's Demon Ice Mirrors to try and save Sasuke, a move that almost left them both dead.

Now Naruto had something even bigger to add to his list of recklessness. He stared down Orochimaru as he attacked with everything he had, slashing with Kyuubi enhanced strength and claws. He ducked under a swing of the Kusanagi from Orochimaru and Naruto weaved to the side to avoid a kick. It was like trying to fight smoke for Naruto.

Orochimaru frowned as he continued to weave around the straight forward attacks of the Kyuubi container. He was only interested in Sasuke, not this waste of flesh in front of him. But still, if he killed the blonde then he threatened to bring Akatsuki down on his neck, something he was not looking forward to at the very least.

Orochimar4u lashed out with his tongue and caught the container around his forearms, lifting him up into the air so that he could only thrash so much. A stroke of his sword parted Naruto's jacket, His other hand flexed and five fires began to burn on his finger tips. "You're an annoyance; it's time to remove you." Orochimaru said and drove his fingers forward. "Five Pronged Elemental Seal!" He slammed his fingers into Naruto's seal, sealing off the Kyuubi. He watched with satisfaction as the blonde's struggles began to cease, the lack of the Kyuubi's chakra causing Naruto's body to shut off for a time.

Orochimaru flung him to the side, amazed briefly when he saw Sasuke whip out two kunai, catching the blonde's jacket through the shoulders with them. But Sasuke's distraction allowed Orochimaru to extend his neck out, going to bite Sasuke and give him his mark.

Deep in the recesses of Naruto's mind, a mighty fox stayed sitting in a meditative pose, the same pose that it had retained for eight long years. On the fox was not quite as majestic and mighty as it had looked those long years ago. Time and effort had taken its toll. "**I am the Kyuubi no Yoko, Rikudo Kurama, strongest of the Biju! I will not yield!" **the fox roared out to no one

After eight years, the virus was still strong and infecting his container. At first, Kurama could purge the virus with only a miniscule amount of his power. But over the years, it took more chakra to try and purge the virus or at least keep it back. Kurama knew already that the extra chakra flowing through his container was causing his container to be stronger, faster, and more aggressive.

But time had passed. It had gone from being a miniscule amount of chakra to a Kage level Shinobi using an E-ranked Jutsu every few hours. Then it had built up and gotten stronger.

At this point, it was like a Jonin launching off a C-ranked Jutsu every hour, on the hour. Kurama needed rest, a few days and he would be strong enough to go years once more. But a few days of rest would allow this Virus to contaminate his jailor. He did not know what this Virus would do, except that it was continuously evolving as Kurama blasted it with chakra.

The pull of his chakra by his jailer, twice, had been unexpected but Kurama could handle it. Then the unexpected had truly happened.

He could no longer sense the virus.

Kurama narrowed his eyes and pulsed out his chakra, using a great deal of it to do so. He felt his chakra hit a block and his eyes widened before he utilized a full tail's worth of chakra, roaring out. Still, his chakra hit a block and it was closer. The block was closing in on the cage. Kurama constantly discharged his chakra, trying to create a shield, but it was being pressed in by the block.

Someone had tampered with the seal.

Kurama was no fool, he was a realist. Feeling his powers being drawn in, he knew immediately he had failed. He had tried, but he had failed. It was as simple as that. There was no use crying about the failure. Kurama lay down and almost immediately, he was asleep, breathing heavily. He would find out more once the seal was corrected.

He would have his rest.

Naruto thrashed in his sleep. He was sweating; he was seeing images of blood, feeling the air rush by his fur. Fur? No… He didn't have fur. He thrashed, unknowing that he was running a high fever, unknowing to his pulse rapidly reaching rates that would kill someone.

The tree was blown apart and he finally managed to wake up. He was breathing heavily. He could smell something, something tainted. The debris made it difficult for him to see. He dragged himself out from under it and almost immediately removed his jacket, enjoying the cooler air. He looked around to see Sakura whispering something in Sasuke's ear. The Sound Nin that had attacked Kabuto put his scroll down and fled with his teammates.

Naruto walked over to the scroll and picked it up before looking to his teammates who were watching him, looking a little surprised. No doubt cause he looked rough due to the attack. Naruto felt how he looked undoubted.

"Can we please go now?" Naruto asked softly. He felt drained, but he needed to push on.

It wasn't long before they were racing towards the tower. Kabuto offered to help, but something about him didn't sit well with Naruto now. He smelled of old blood, but that could be from being a medic or something. Naruto didn't bring up his shot chakra control with his teammates either, he didn't want to worry them.

He couldn't stick to the trees anymore. So he was literally racing along them using speed and agility that he never knew he had. HE enjoyed the burn in his muscles, it helped him wake up a bit and stretch himself out.

His team was one of the last ones to make it to the tower, but they made it with a few minutes to spare. Naruto listened to Sarutobi going on about how the Chunin exams were a replacement for war.

When he went to the balcony to watch the fights, Naruto rested his head on the cool metal, just barely watching. He was burning up.

Naruto was having problems though, he could tell. He could smell the blood soaking Gaara's sand, when Shino caused Zaku's arms to blow into chunks Naruto was breathing heavier, his breaths coming in short gasp. He was reacting to blood for some reason.

Naruto saw his name on the board and he moved to go down to the arena floor. He could see chunks of meat; he could see the blood from Shino's match still. Naruto tried to focus, breathing in through his mouth.

Sarutobi watched Naruto with a careful eye. It was almost like the blonde was sick. Could the blood and gore from Shino's match be affecting him so much? Sarutobi sighed softly. He did not look forward to this match.

Usually, the board would roll at random and pick two people. Occasionally however, it was seen as fit to rig it a little bit. Such as when they made it so Sasuke got to fight first so that they could contain the Cursed Seal quicker.

Sarutobi did not want Naruto to advance. Well that wasn't quite true. He did not want Naruto to advance so soon. The blonde was still brash and he had no sense of when to keep his mouth shut or his actions in check. These were not good traits of a Chunin; especially given he would be telling Naruto who his mother was when he made it to Chunin.

Sarutobi had rigged the board to give Naruto a fair shake. Lee or Gaara would have utterly demolished Naruto, as would have Neji. Naruto didn't need that sort of crushing disappointment. He needed a fairer fight, one that Naruto actually had a chance of winning against.

Thus he chose Inuzuka Kiba. Kiba was known to be strong, fast and had a bit of a rivalry with Naruto. It would do the boy good to lose against someone in a fair fight. If however Naruto won against Kiba, then Sarutobi would be even more proud of the blonde before he got him a tutor or something to get some intelligence pounded into his head.

Sarutobi didn't want to do this. He knew it was wrong of him, but sometimes the best and brightest had to be held back.

Hell, Kushina had been held back in the same way.

To be fair though, Sarutobi thought that most of the Konoha contestants this time around could deal with another six months of being Genin. Except for Shikamaru, that boy had a good head on his shoulders. Shino too could pass quite possibly.

"Ha! We got the dead-last Akamaru!" Kiba said brazenly as he cracked his knuckles. "I'm going to end this in one fight!" he proclaimed.

Naruto rubbed his eyes, he was still so tired. He might have had a witty comeback if he wasn't so damned tired.

Hayate looked to the two fighters. "Hajime!" he shouted, jumping back as Kiba rushed forward.

Naruto focused, stepping back with his right foot so that he could connect a punch with Kiba when he got closer. It seemed like Kiba was running in slow motion.

Kiba threw a punch, aimed for Naruto's jaw. Naruto used his left hand, moving it in a circular motion to deflect the punch and stepping forward. Kiba opened the thumb of his fist, and Naruto felt it scrape by his face just as he drove his fist into Kiba's stomach, driving the Inuzuka boy back.

Naruto felt something wet sliding down his cheek and along his jaw line. He reached up with his left hand, wincing and pulling his hand back. He paused though; his hand was coated in it. Blood, it was right there. Naruto began to breathe heavier, his eyes widening a bit. He felt his pulse quicken.

Kiba bit his hand a bit as he touched his stomach before he focused on Naruto. He furrowed his brows at the sight of Naruto breathing heavier, staring at his bloodied hand like he was afraid of it or something.

Naruto fell to his knees and his hands; he could practically hear his heartbeat thundering in his chest. He drove his fist into the concrete slabs over and over. Pain and fire ripped through his body like it was trying to destroy him from the inside out. He roared out in agony, clutching his head and digging his nails into his scalp

Naruto pounded the ground with everything he was worth, roaring in agony as he cracked the concrete. Everyone was transfixed on him. Then the pain increased.

With a sickening snap, Naruto's back bowed on him. Lumps formed between his shoulder blades, his skin trying to hold back something. In a spray of blood however, two long bone-like appendages ripped free from his back. Naruto began to convulse on the floor, bones snapping and blood pooling around him as he changed.

It was a brutal and nasty process but when it was finished. The beast had been unleashed. Crimson eyes locked with Kiba, claws flexed and whiskers twitched. Nine long tails flowed behind him as a thin membrane extended from the bony spikes protruding from his back. Naruto was covered in coarse red-orange fur, looking like a mix between a wolf, a fox, a bat, and a man. His clothes had been shredded, destroyed by the change.

Naruto exploded into action.

Kiba had gotten enough of a glimpse at Naruto's new form to confirm that Naruto's facial structure was wolf-based, but the tails were definitely fox like. He tried to locate the blonde but pain found him first.

Kiba was launched back towards the wall and he was struck with pain once more, lashed into the air like some sort of toy.

He was bounced off of a speeding object that he couldn't keep track of. He landed on his back, bleeding and coughing, feeling like one giant bruise.

Kiba was able to see the wings closer; they were certainly more like a bat except for the frame of them. The membrane was definitely bat like, the village had a Bat summon and he helped his Sis take care of them sometimes. They weren't used often, but it was how Kiba could distinguish things.

Naruto's clawed hand was poised like a spear, aimed for Kiba's head. A twitch flowed through Naruto's arm.

"Uzumaki Naruto! Control yourself immediately!" Sarutobi shouted, flooding Naruto with his Killing Intent.

Naruto paused, his eyes widened his hand just moment away from coming down and killing Kiba. With a vicious snarl, he drove his hand down and buried up to his elbow in the concrete. Naruto growled a bit more. "I… win." He said, his voice rough, gravelly, and sounding like he was trying to growl and snarl.

Naruto heard footsteps and he turned, moving off of the prey as he watched the older one come forward. He snarled a bit as he backed up on all fours, his nine tails thrashing about and the membranes of his wings slipping back inside before the joint of the wings showed to be double jointed and appeared over his shoulders like two long spears to be thrust forward.

Sarutobi walked towards the boy that was like a grandson to him frowning. Naruto was clearly not in the right state of mind.

Naruto snarled a little bit, still going back. He did not see an old man in front of him. He saw a gorilla moving towards him, armored and stronger than he was. Naruto continued to move back until his tails bumped into a wall. Naruto glanced over his shoulder, he was cornered. He lowered himself a little bit, snarling but his eyes were widened with fear.

Naruto snarled a bit and when the gorilla got close, he lashed out with a spike, thrusting it at the shoulder of the gorilla. The arms were the strength. It was batted to the side effortlessly, but Naruto had used it as a feint, instead going for the eyes of the gorilla. Blind it and it did not matter about speed or strength.

Sarutobi saw the hand twitch, about to move and his foot lashed out, kicking the hand back away. He knelt down and put his hand on Naruto's head between the ears, watching Naruto cringe in fear. Sarutobi spoke softly. "Come back Naruto-kun, come back my boy. Focus on who you are and come back."

Naruto looked wide eyed at the gorilla. "Ji...Ji…" Naruto's snout began to recede and his form began to shift back, and he collapsed, unconscious. This shift back was just as brutal, bones snapping and dislocating before healing.

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto!" Sarutobi said loudly before he motioned for the medics to come over and help the blonde as well. He then motioned to a very particular ANBU who followed them. Sarutobi stroked his chin, drawing his pipe from his coat pocket and putting some tobacco inside the bowl. He lit it with a match and inhaled deeply.

He would never have believed Naruto had become such a creature. Things were going to get bad. Thankfully, they had another in their forces to teach and train Naruto. Though, Sarutobi would have to speak with her. She had sworn to never change anyone.

It was part of the reason though as to why Sarutobi had passed Naruto. There was no way in Hell that he could afford to have such an asset stay untrained and not at least a Chunin. So Naruto would be given the month to be trained in his new asset, his new form by someone that had at least a decade of experience as such a creature. Sarutobi would then see if in a month's time, Naruto was better, more able to become a Chunin.

Sarutobi pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing this would come back and bite him in the ass given time.

Naruto awoke at the hospital, his eyes bleary and he glanced around, trying to figure out where he was. He hurt, he felt like shit. His head turned to see a female ANBU standing at the door. Naruto couldn't tell much about her, she had a hood up over her head and a mask on her face.

The mask drew his attention though. It looked almost like a big cat, like a panther or something.

Just then, Sarutobi entered the door, and the ANBU straightened up a bit. Sarutobi grabbed a chair and sat down beside Naruto before looking to the ANBU. "We will be talking later Panther." He said to his ANBU. She gave a salute, purely professional even with the hard look Sarutobi was giving her.

Sarutobi turned to look at Naruto. "How do you feel?" he asked with a kind smile.

"Like Kyuubi chewed me up and spat me out." Naruto said in a rough scratchy voice. "What happened? Did I win?"

Sarutobi nodded. "You did win Naruto-kun; you won in the shortest amount of time, a whooping thirty-seven seconds. But you… shifted, into something else Naruto-kun, a creature that fought on pure instinct, using speed and power to bully young Kiba-kun." Sarutobi took a puff of his pipe. "Tell me, when did you encounter the creature that turned you?"

Naruto blinked a little bit."Turned me?" he asked.

"Panther." Sarutobi said.

The female ANBU stepped forward and unzipped her ANBU vest before removing it. The hood, exposing her black hair, was next, followed by the mesh shirt underneath. She knelt beside the bed in a black sports bra, exposing her shoulder which had scar tissue where something had savagely bitten her. "My Progenitor, when he turned me, left a scar that cannot possibly be healed. You should have one as well Uzumaki-kun."

Naruto frowned a little bit before he looked to Sarutobi. "I don't know what's going on Jiji." He said a little scared.

Sarutobi frowned a bit more. "Panther, did you turn Naruto-kun?" he asked his ANBU.

"No Hokage-sama." She whispered softly. "However, I think I know when Uzumaki-kun was turned."

Sarutobi puffed his pipe a bit. "Proceed." He said.

"His fifth birthday, do you remember how it rained for nearly a week straight? I could feel my Progenitor's power in the water, in the clouds, he was making it rain for quite some time. Uzumaki-kun had been injured by those civilians. I think it might be possible that Uzumaki-kun managed to get the blood of my Progenitor into his system. Though, why he had not turned until yesterday confuses me." Panther said.

Sarutobi scratched his chin a bit. He remembered that event. He chewed on the tip of his pipe, considering his agent's words.

"However, the 'Wings' were not of mine or my Progenitor's." Panther said. "It is possible that my… Curse Sibling had something to do with it. It is all speculation and we will never know until my Progenitor is found."

Sarutobi bit on the tip of his pipe more before he looked to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, listen to me carefully." Sarutobi said and got the boy's undivided attention. "You have turned into a Monster." He held a hand up to forestall the outburst of the boy. "No, I do not believe you are a Monster by nature, but by form. You have the ability to perform a transformation into a creature that we have little information on, even less given your unique transformation. Panther here will be one of your instructors for the next Month. Your first match is against Sabaku no Gaara." Sarutobi knew the boy would be powerful enough if he trained for the next month under Panther. "She has been burdened by this form, much the same as you have been and she can control both her transformation and her actions while in the transformation. You have been unconscious for nearly twenty four hours as well. Get a bit more rest, but otherwise you are cleared from the hospital. Do you have any questions?"

Naruto bit his tongue a bit. "Do you think it could be something that has to do with the Kyuubi? Some snake guy did something to the seal in the Forest and my chakra control has been shot since then."

Sarutobi glanced at the window. "It looks like you will have a second teacher for the month then Naruto-kun. Jiraiya-kun, get in here."

The window was slid open to reveal a tall man with long white spiky hair and red markings coming down from his face. His headband had the marking for 'Oil' on it instead of the village's symbol. Naruto looked the man over; he looked to be quite strong.

"Hey Gaki," the man said with a grin. "I'm the Great Toad Sage, Jiraiya!" he shouted boisterously, trying to lighten the situation.

Naruto grinned a bit, he liked this guy already. Jiraiya seemed to be a goof like Naruto.

"I need you to lift your shirt for me." Jiraiya said, cracking his knuckles. "I'm Konoha's resident seal master, so if my old teammate did anything, I should be able to tell."

Naruto lifted his shirt and channeled chakra to show off the seal. Jiraiya rubbed his belly like he was some sort of Buddha statue.

'_Odd seal over even seal… that's too risky of a combination, why did you do it this way Orochimaru-teme?'_ Jiraiya thought, rubbing Naruto's stomach a bit more. "Alright! Five Element Pronged Seal: Release!" he shouted, driving his fingers into the five points in Naruto's gut, making Naruto cough and his coils flood once more with chakra, both normal and demonic.

"One last thing," Sarutobi said before he glanced to Panther. "Do not remove your mask until Naruto-kun can defeat you in your Shifted Form." Panther gave another Salute before she put the mesh shirt on, the hood, and the vest once more.

Inside the seal, Kurama awoke, his eyes snapping open. The tampering on the seal had been fixed. He sat up and sniffed the air, something was wrong with his container. He narrowed his eyes; something old was in the boy's system. Something old and very powerful, something he hadn't smelled in centuries. The smell had been on the wounds of his Father.

Something that all the Biju had sworn vengeance against.

Kurama sent out an experimental pulse of demonic chakra, trying to eradicate the parasitic virus that was fused with his container. It didn't do anything and so Kurama snarled just a little bit. He could wait; he now had all the time in the world.

Sarutobi found himself inside the chambers of the advisory council several hours later. They didn't really hold any power; they couldn't vote on anything after all, they merely advised him to the best of their abilities.

One of the civilians had politely requested the meeting at Sarutobi's earliest convenience.

Sarutobi opened the floor to the Civilian, having an idea of what was to be about.

"Hokage-sama, we have come across disturbing information. Uzumaki Naruto turned into a feral beast during the Preliminaries of the Chunin Exams? What sort of guarantee do we have that he won't go on a rampage, or that the Kyuubi was involved with his transformation?"

Yep, Sarutobi guessed it correctly. He sighed and puffed on his pipe. "Because I am aware of his condition and I have placed him with the proper trainer."

"Condition Hiruzen?" Danzo asked curiously. If the demon was manifesting, he wanted to be able to train the boy in harnessing the Kyuubi's abilities.

"Panther is training him Danzo, that sort of Condition." Sarutobi said. Panther's condition was kept extremely secret but he knew Danzo knew of her condition.

Danzo inclined his head. "I see, the boy will be learning from the best then."

"What sort of Condition Hokage-sama?" One of the civilians asked.

"The classified kind, we're done here." Sarutobi said with an air of finality.

In a far off land, where the snow was biting cold and the mountains of the place were keeping him hidden, a figure opened his red eyes. "So… Father has made another champion to fight for his war." The rustling of chains was heard as he tried to move. "Yet I sense something different about him."

Flames erupted from his mouth, striking a pool of silver fluid in front of him, casting a spell. He could see the blonde haired Shinobi. He smelled the air coming from the pool. "He holds my blood in him…" those red eyes focused on the blonde's form for a while.

Suddenly he laughed, a booming sound that shook the icicles hanging from the cave.

"My oh my, Father you created yourself a weapon!" Sharp teeth glinted in the slight light of the pool, a grin on the face of the monster that was locked up. "He holds my blood, but I hold no sway over him. Quite interesting… I wonder how this happened."

Unfortunately, Divination into the past was not an ability of his. Scrying in the present was, but Divination was not on the table.

"I will need my own weapon then, to combat Father's threat. But who could possibly be good enough?" The pool shifted once more, showing a raven haired boy with crimson eyes. Dark laughter filled the chambers. "Oh yes, you will do… You shall be my dark Champion. I can feel your darkness even out here…"

End Chapter

A/N: So that was fun, this is a sort of cross over with Artix Entertainment's Adventure Quest, not to be confused with their Adventure Quest Worlds and a bit of Dragonfable.

Those of you who have played it, yes the Progenitor is Wolfwing the Werepyre. The Progenitor's son is Nightbane the Dracopyre. Those of you who haven't played Adventure Quest, go play it, it's really fun. But I'm not sure if those two will be keeping those names.

I will also be throwing in other things of fantasy if I feel like it; this is just a sort of pilot thing to see if people like this

Panther is also a Canon character that I'm going to have fun with. Most of you will likely guess who it is, but she will play her part eventually.

Lastly, anyone got an idea for pairings for this? Please keep in mind that Naruto is only 13 in this so no one older than say… four years older than him.

HunterBerserkerWolf, out


	2. Chapter 2

Blood Ties Chapter 2

Naruto had no idea where he was. He had gone to sleep and woke up in this heavily forested area complete with a waterfall and a hot spring. Both Panther and Jiraiya were there with him to train him, but Naruto just had no damned clue where he was at. He breathed slowly and carefully before turning to face the talking trainers he had.

They were under a silencing seal that Jiraiya had made given his hearing was much better now.

"You will train him properly Jiraiya-san." Panther said rather heatedly. "Or we will finally go toe to toe once and for all, and I assure you that neither of us wants that."

Jiraiya had his arms crossed. "I can't teach the boy that much and you know it Panther." He said using the ANBU's codename.

Panther jabbed a finger at Jiraiya. "You will train him properly or so help me Jiraiya-san; I will tell him your relationship to you."

Jiraiya's eyes darkened and his arms unfolded. "Is that a threat Panther-san?"

"It's a guarantee Jiraiya-san." Panther was pissed. "He already looks up to you, I can tell just by him looking over at us." She crossed her own arms, her eyes narrowing at Jiraiya, though he couldn't see it. "Do you want to crush your pupil's son's hopes for you? I know you can teach him."

Jiraiya balled a hand into a fist. "I can't just teach him Panther." He said before his shoulders slumped. "It hurts just seeing his hopeful face; he has Minato's eyes… The hope, the pride, everything in them screams Minato at me."

"Weak, you're weak and pathetic Jiraiya-san." Panther said before turning away, shaking her head. "I can't believe you're letting the past get to you. Move on, or Naruto will die. There's a storm brewing given what he is, one that he's not ready for." She moved out of the bubble, ending the conversation. "Uzumaki-kun, follow me. I have something to explain to you."

Naruto got up from the ground. "What is it Panther-sensei?" he asked her.

Panther looked to Naruto as she led him over to the waterfall. "You will be doing a lot of training using your clones. For four hours a day, you will use as many clones as possible and we will be improving your chakra control. The secret to the Shadow Clones is that they do a memory transfer over to you. With it, I expect you to be able to do this by the end of the month," Panther turned and lashed her hand out at the water fall, her hand had turned into a claw with sleek black fur along it and suddenly five deep gouges appeared in the water fall.

Naruto stared surprised at the damage that was done before he turned to look at the elite ANBU. "That's scary." He said simply.

Panther nodded. "It's meant to be, we are unable to use Jutsu as well in our shifted form due to the lack of dexterous fingers. Every hour, on the hour, ten percent your clones, the ones furthest along on any given task, will dispel, giving their memories to the other Clones. During those four hours, we will begin to do physical exercises so that your base form will be better. With your base form better, your shifted form will be better."

Naruto nodded, that was a part of the day already that was planned out. "Out of curiosity, how strong is your Shifted Form Panther-sensei?" Naruto asked

Panther thought about this. "You drove your hand, up to your elbow, into concrete with your spear hand. This is actually quite impressive. I can only drive up to my forearm into concrete, and our Progenitor can drive up to his elbow in solid Granite."

Naruto's eyes widened. "I'm stronger than you Panther-sensei?" he asked before he coughed as he was kicked in the gut into the waterfall.

Panther's leg was still extended from the kick and she set her leg down. "Make no mistake Uzumaki-kun; I am far stronger than you are. You may be physically stronger than me in that form, but I am stronger period. I have almost two decades of experience with my Shifted Form; you have less than a week. Even our Progenitor is stronger than you are no matter if you could drive your hand through pure diamond. He has centuries of experience and is constantly in his Shifted Form."

Naruto stood up in the water, it came up to his chest but that was the point. He put his hands into the cross shaped hand seal, bringing up over a dozen clones that charged at Panther. He hated being called weak

Panther leapt just as the clones came out o the water. The sound of steel ringing was heard and the clones were stuck in midair as Panther landed on the water gracefully, her blade out and extended at Naruto's neck. The fifteen or so clones all popped in front of Naruto's eyes. "It isn't nice to attack your teacher Uzumaki-kun."

Naruto felt a trickle of wetness sliding down his neck, undoubtedly bleeding but he was terrified of this woman. He had just barely caught the spin where she slashed all of his clones and made it look easy. She was a terrifying woman in Naruto's eyes.

Panther grabbed him by the front of the jacket and hauled him out of the water, letting him collapse onto the ground. Panther sheathed her sword on her back once more. "You will learn humility while learning under me." She noticed Naruto duck his head down. "Even if I have to beat it into you for you to get it, you will learn Humility."

"I've already learned Humility!" Naruto argued only to get kicked in the chest.

"No, you have not. Fighting several high ranking Missing Nin is not a sign of humility. It is a sign of arrogance, or stupidity. Proclaiming you're going to be Hokage is not humility, it is arrogance. Doing all the pranks you have done, even going so far as to attack me, your Sensei, is an action of the Arrogant and the Stupid. Humility is to know when you are weak, humility is to know when your strength alone won't be enough, and humility is to know when to pick your battles and to not so recklessly attack your Sensei."

Naruto looked up at Panther, the pain in his chest causing him to touch it a bit. He bit the tip of his tongue, desperately wanting to lash out. "What else will I be doing Panther-sensei?" he asked quietly.

"Good, you are beginning to understand." She said, nodding her head a bit. "After the first four hours of chakra exercises, you will have four hours of academics, strategy, and politics. At the rate you are now Uzumaki-kun, you might destroy some priceless artifact on your first diplomacy mission." Panther shook her head a bit. "And while your clones do that, you will continue with your physical exercises."

Naruto nodded softly. Eight hours of physical exercises. He was going to get strong and fast by the end of the month and it was going to hurt.

"The next four hours, after that you will be meditating to contact with the Kyuubi. You will talk to it, you will learn about it, you will try to get its respect and you will try to learn how to use its powers." Panther said. "Your clones will be learning from Jiraiya-sama about various other aspects of the Shinobi world: Tracking, Information Gathering, trap making, poison making, stealth, spying, etc. I will, of course, help Jiraiya-sama teach you, but nothing too much. The last four hours will be you, and only you, learning how to not only control when you Shift, but also how you act when you Shift. The last two hours of the day will most be dedicated to either eating during Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, or they will be working with Jiraiya-sama on a few advanced things. You will sleep from 2200 hours to 0400 hours, six hours each night."

Naruto nodded breathing out a bit. That was a lot to be going over, and he had four weeks to bring it up to be on par with a Chunin. Naruto closed his eyes and inhaled slowly before exhaling. He glanced to Panther and nodded. "Let's do it."

Panther smiled behind her mask, she liked that determination of his. "Summon as many clones as you can." Naruto formed his favorite hand sign and summoned up well over two hundred clones. Panther seemed to look over them before she drew her sword and cut down about thirty of them. "There, an even two hundred clones." She said and sheathed her sword. "Form up!" she shouted

The two hundred clones bumbled around a bit before they finally managed to get into formation, twenty lines of ten in two groups of a hundred. Panther nodded. "Next time you form, you will form in formation!" she shouted. "Do I make myself understood?!"

"Hai Panther-sensei!" the clones shouted. She was already undoubted going to make life Hell, no need to piss her off even more.

She then directed the clones to move off, fifty were told to continue with the tree climbing exercise and to hold a conversation while they walked. Fifty were told to go to the pool of water and start learning how to walk on it, a feat that was no walk in the park since they were to hold a conversation as well. Fifty were given a rock and told to make their chakra sharp and to a point, like the finest of razors and that none of them were allowed to dispel until they showed some work cutting through the rock. The last fifty, Jiraiya took for himself. He handed each of them a crate of water balloons, where he got that many crates was anyone's guess, and told them to try and pop it one handed with chakra alone. They were not to use a second hand.

Jiraiya's mind was still ringing with what Panther had said to him, about how he was stuck in the past. He had watched as she had physically dominated the blonde for a moment and he sighed, making his choice because it really wasn't much of a choice to begin with.

He was going to train his Godson.

He watched from afar, thinking of how Naruto had recklessly attacked Panther. Not even Minato would have done something at Naruto's age. Jiraiya clenched his fists as Panther dressed Naruto down, it was brutal, but given how the boy reacted afterwards, it was necessary apparently.

Jiraiya sighed as he looked to his hand, thinking about Minato's technique. He then stepped forward, dragging a scroll out of his vest before Panther could get to the last group of clones. They were his this time.

He went to the original and held out four two inch thick blue bands. "Put those one, one on each wrist and each ankle." Jiraiya told him.

He watched Naruto comply before he held up his hands. "Weight Seal: Increase!" he shouted and watched the blonde fall to his knees.

Jiraiya crouched down, watching the blonde. "Those seals evenly distribute weight all over your body; I'd say you have about a hundred pounds extra on you. For the next four hours, I want Five hundred push-up, five hundred crunches, five hundred squats, five hundred jumping jacks, five hundred punches with each arm, and five hundred kicks with each leg. Hop to it."

Naruto stared wide-eyed at Jiraiya before he set his jaw in a determined look and he fell forward to the push-up position.

Naruto grunted as he felt heavy legs plop down on his lower back and he glared at Jiraiya who had unsealed a chair and sat in it, using Naruto like a foot stool. Naruto just went down.

"One Genin Gaki!" Jiraiya shouted as Naruto came back up.

Naruto went down and came back up again, his fingers digging trenches in the ground as he balled his hands into fists. "Two Genin Gaki!" Naruto was going to get tired of that, really quickly.

Jiraiya was going to make it so he didn't see Minato by making Naruto better than Minato.

Panther watched from her place by the water, staring as Jiraiya pushed Naruto. It was scary, almost, how much of a slave driver Jiraiya could be when he forced the blonde to actually work through such a murderous. But there was no way that Naruto would be able to do five hundred push-ups in thirty minutes which was what such a training regiment boiled down to. Sure enough, thirty minutes passed and Naruto hadn't even hit the three hundred mark.

"Crunches Gaki," Jiraiya said in an orderly tone. "You will be giving me those spare push-ups before your done this month." He said.

Panther watched over the clones, offering a few words of advice when she needed to. Or she would offer a few distractions, making those working on control have to try harder. At the end of the first hour, she chose ten from each group, and Jiraiya chose ten from his own group, to dispel.

Still however, Naruto continued to move on. He didn't want to let either her or Jiraiya down. He was far from perfect but still impressive. However, Panther wanted to see Naruto at his worst. So she made it seem rather aloof, telling the clones that they were average, for a Genin. Cruel, yes, but it was necessary for her to have Naruto at his worst, to see when he would finally break.

Even Jiraiya went with it.

It was cruel of them, but he needed to feel as low as possible, because once that happened there was only one way to go: up.

Sasuke panted heavily on the ground as he felt sweat drip from his forehead. Kakashi was drilling him, constantly having him throw out Fireballs in order to try and build up his reserves and control. Also, Kakashi had said that with enough practice, he wouldn't need to use hand signs or call out his technique.

Such a boon could mean the difference in a fight with Itachi, or even his opponent which was Neji

His thoughts drifted back to what Kakashi had told him of Naruto. Sasuke grit his teeth before punching the ground. The blonde had gotten stronger and faster so suddenly. What the hell sort of transformation did he have to go through?!

"How did you get that power Naruto?" he asked himself before standing up to continue training. Kakashi was back at their campsite, cooking lunch if he remembered correctly.

"Perhaps, I could help you with that." Sasuke turned to the side to see a man with darkly tanned skin and rather common features except for the fact he was rather muscular. He was dressed in a grey kimono that he didn't seem to be worried about getting dirty.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked, grabbing a kunai and slowly circling the individual.

"Unimportant." The man said with a cruel smile as he touched the scorched rock, rubbing the ash between his fingers. "Mmm, good, you have a strong fire." The man then touched a hole in the rock. He scratched at the inside for a moment. "This was done with electricity, yes?"

Sasuke was surprise at the man's actions. He could already tell that the hole was made by an electrical current? Not only that, but that it wasn't done by Sasuke. Who was this man? "What do you mean you could help me?"

The man turned to face Sasuke once more. "Uzumaki-san, he is a monster like myself." The man gave a flourishing bow. "But not quite like myself either, his powers have been… mutated. You wish to be stronger than Uzumaki-san?"

Sasuke felt the hair on the back of his neck raise and he felt upset. "I'm already stronger than Naruto." He said flatly.

The man chuckled. "Oh no, no you're not. Not anymore, not since he's ascended. It takes a monster to overpower another monster."

Sasuke watched the man for a moment. "A monster like yourself? Something you can pass on?"Sasuke asked intrigued and pissed.

The man grinned more. "Oh yes, I would destroy Uzumaki-san if we were to fight. I can pass on my gifts as well." Lightning cackled along the man's fist just as it set on fire. "You even have my elements so that I can teach you a few things."

The man lashed his hand out, a red beam of energy leaving his fist and blowing a hole clean through another rock. The inside glowed an angry red, a deadly mixture of fire and lightning.

Sasuke swallowed, looking at the damage wrought. He wouldn't be able to fight this man, neither would Kakashi. "Then give me the power." He whispered sounding hungry for it even. He needed it to destroy Itachi.

The man raised a finger, wagging it and making a slight scolding sound. "You must earn my gift boy. But it's a rather easy thing to do." The man grinned. "Seek out the Dragon's Maw protected by the Three Iron Wolves. You will find my body there, not just this shadow of who I really am."

The man turned to leave, but Sasuke came up with one more question. "Wait!" he shouted and watched the man turn to look at him. "You said you can make me a monster right? How big of a monster can you make me?"

The man's grin now looked down right predatory, sharp teeth showing in the sunlight. "How big of a monster do you want to be?" He vanished into nothing before Sasuke's eyes.

Naruto collapsed after the first four hours. It had been physically exhausting and that wasn't with his clones popping every hour. His figure was drenched in sweat, he was tired, he was sore, he hurt like hell, and he wasn't allowed any food or water.

Damned if he wasn't enjoying it to some extent though.

This was the type of training he needed back in the academy. He needed someone riding his ass and purposely making things harder for him, constantly making him push himself. He knew the two believed he could do it, why else would they make him do it if they didn't believe in him?

Still though, a nice word every now and then could have gone a long way. Instead, he had to ride the pain and anger he felt to keep pushing himself. It was sort of like when he learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu. It had been pure desperation that was pushing him forward.

Jiraiya rolled him over onto his back with his foot. Naruto looked up at the white haired slave driver. "Twenty clones Gaki."

Naruto nodded and groaned before sitting up. He placed his hands into the seal and summoned the required clones. They were taken away by Panther to start working on Academics. Worse yet, she was starting from the beginning of the curriculum at the Academy to brush up his knowledge. He was told to have at least a C by the end of the month.

Naruto went over to Jiraiya for his physical training.

"Punch me Naruto." Jiraiya said.

Naruto balled his fist up before taking a straight jab. He felt his hand get deflected, a palm strike to the gut and then an elbow to his head. Naruto laid on the ground panting a bit, his head throbbed as he looked up, blinkingly, at Jiraiya.

"That's the combination I want you to work on for the next hour." Jiraiya said. "I want to see a thousand of them, so come on."

Naruto picked himself up, shaking a bit as he did so. He felt weak. Left hand went in a circular motion to deflect a strike, palm strike with his right hand, stepping into it, followed up with an elbow to the temple with the left arm, stepping into that as well. "One Genin Gaki!" Jiraiya called off from the side.

This exercise was about repetition, about muscle memory. It was so Naruto could comfortably utilize something in a fight. Naruto could feel the blood pumping through his body; he could hear it pounding in his ears. His lungs burned as he kept working, ignoring Jiraiya except for the count. Seven, eight, nine, ten, these were easier to do faster than his asinine work-out.

At the end of the first hour, he had been about three hundred away from completing the exercise. Jiraiya told Naruto to throw a kick. Naruto threw one, aiming for the Jiraiya's ribs. The foot was deflected down before he was body tackled into by the older man, the point of his shoulder clearly hitting the sternum.

Jiraiya looked down at Naruto who was on the ground. "A thousand of those." He said. He had to keep from hitting the blonde too hard or too low. The shoulder was meant to hit the Xiphoid process. If that was broken, it was only a matter of time and chest shots before the opponent died.

He was pleased when the blonde started to do it, a little shaky at first but getting more confident in his abilities. It was good because Jiraiya wanted the blonde to get better

Elsewhere in Konoha, a lazy genius sat looking at a Shogi board that was in front of him, trying to decide what he wanted to do. To say he was playing himself wasn't quite right or wrong. He was going over potential strategies, his mind allowing him to think of the board as something else.

"Damn." Shikamaru muttered as he stared at the board. No matter what he could do, even two hundred moves ahead, he could not see himself beating Kankuro as he was. In fact, Shikamaru saw Kankuro beating him rather soundly unless he did something else.

He sighed softly and laid down on the porch, putting his hands up behind his head and thinking as he stared up into the clouds, thinking about other factors.

If he won his match, he would go on to face Gaara or Naruto. Having seen Gaara's sand in action, Shikamaru wasn't sure he could come up with a way to get through it so easily. He might have been able to bluff his way through or something, but he wasn't sure.

Naruto however presented a bigger problem. Naruto had been insanely fast. Not to mention, the blonde drove his hand, a spear hand nonetheless, through solid concrete and rock up to his elbow. Kiba had been scared shitless when he was told that it could have been his head.

"Then he has all those extra appendages." Shikamaru muttered as he tapped his chin. Eleven extra appendages to attack with, Naruto didn't need to focus on either attack or defense. He could just counter whatever was thrown his way with either of them.

However, Shikamaru had noticed that Naruto had been rather… feral almost. The blonde had gone so far as to even attack the Hokage before he seemed to recognize who it really was. The blonde was one great big mystery that Shikamaru couldn't figure out.

Shikamaru sighed as he cleared the Shogi board and sealed it away. He needed to go find Asuma. These exams were too troublesome to have to take again.

Naruto leaned against a tree, his hand shaking as he slowly ate the meal he was given. It was a pouch of food, Panther had told him it was a war ration that had remained from the war given they kept rather well and they weren't too bad. They also had all the nutrients he would have needed. Even Panther and Jiraiya were eating one.

Jiraiya had made Naruto go through the same exercises, as basic as they were, while throwing pebbles at him for the final two hours. He was bruised and his hand was shaking and he was having difficulty standing. But Naruto knew it was also meant to be worse, much worse.

He finished eating, having only taken a few minutes. Was it the Kyuubi that was healing him so quickly or was it something else? Was it his nature as a Monster now?

Naruto had no idea and truth be told he wanted to see how much his healing abilities would heal, under controlled circumstances of course.

He had been given fifteen minutes to eat, drink water, and rest.

Panther stood up as soon as she was done and looked to the blonde. "Sit under the waterfall for meditation; it will help you make contact with the Kyuubi."

Naruto offered a salute before standing up and wading through the water. He sat on the rock with a few groans of pain. He felt the water pounding down on his shoulders and head, sighing a bit as he closed his eyes and tried to think of nothing. It was easier than he thought it would be but he was just so exhausted.

Drip, drip, drip, it was a far cry from the pounding of the water fall. Naruto opened his eyes to see himself in some sort of sewer with ankle deep water. He looked around, seeing piping all around him. "This is… something else." He whispered.

He began to walk forward through the tunnels, following the piping that seemed to get bigger and branch less. Naruto eventually came to a large cage with a piece of paper on it and noticed the fox laying in front of the cage, those red eyes almost glaring at Naruto.

"**So my container finally comes to me. I kept you safe for eight years, and only now you come to me."** Kurama sat up and watched the blonde walk forward. He kept the surprise off of his face at how much Naruto looked like his Father.

Naruto stopped at a certain point, looking up to the massive fox's face. "You kept me safe?" he asked.

"**Yes, I kept that bastard's curse from infecting you since you received it. My efforts were for naught however when the seal was tampered with."** Kurama waved this off before he leaned back down, staring at Naruto through the bars of the cage. "**I should simply kill you however."**

"What the Hell did I ever do?!" Naruto shouted, getting upset at the insinuation.

Kurama growled. "**You are an Abomination of Nature, a sick and twisted creature that doesn't exist. You are unclean, unwanted, and unnecessary in Nature."**

Naruto clenched his fists. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't even know about it until I woke up after having shifted the first time!"

Kurama listened to Naruto's words before sliding his tongue along his teeth. "**Allow me to enlighten you a little bit then."** He pushed down his hostility towards the blonde. He himself did not have all the facts either.

He would not become a self-fulfilling prophecy of hate.

"**For the sake of my story, we will call the Bastard that started your race the Blasphemer and we will call his father the Progenitor." **Kurama loathed one and respected the other. "**Centuries ago, we nine Biju were once One. The Juubi, we were unstoppable, we were a force of nature that people prayed to in hopes that we would not lay waste to them. During a rampage however, we were sealed inside of a man. This man was the Sage of Six Paths and the Father to the Biju as you know them." **Kurama decided to start from the beginning."**We were still awake inside of the Sage who attempted to take all the Juubi's rage and hate upon himself. He tried to work with the monster inside of him. The Sage was then challenged to combat by another Monster. The Progenitor put up an excellent fight, giving wounds and receiving them." **

Kurama then snarled, slamming his paw on the ground. "**The Sage had not fully healed from his wounds before he was challenged once more, this time by a monster with no morals. The Blasphemer, he was an abomination of nature created by his Lust for Power!" **Kurama inhaled slowly. "**He even drank of the Sage's Blood, drinking deep of our power."**

"**The Sage lasted for Six days before he realized he was dying. Six long days of fire in his veins. He passed on his gifts to his two sons, eyes to the eldest, soul to his youngest. He then proceeded to head out into the wilderness. Another six days and he was growing weaker, feeling urges and whispers that he would never have felt before. He used his own blood to set up the ritual. He unsealed the Juubi and split it into nine parts, crafting the Biju." **Kurama looked silent, closing his eyes for a moment. "**All nine of us have sworn vengeance against the Blasphemer."**

Naruto stared up at the great fox. His righteous anger was well placed if he considered the Sage to be his father. Naruto sat on the ground, looking up at it. Naruto bit his tongue, looking down before he looked up at the fox. "Thank you, for keeping this curse back for so long." Naruto wouldn't call it a gift, not if he had the power of the Blasphemer.

Kurama snorted a bit. "**Leave this place."** He then ejected the blonde and lay back down. He had come close to telling the blonde his name.

Shino dodged swiftly back peddling as quickly as he could. He was not comfortable with the pace of this spar; he allowed his bugs to swarm out and try to capture his opponent. He was worried about the Chunin Exam finals, his opponent was Temari and that alone was a bad match up for him.

Shino allowed a kunai to shoot into his hand that he used to deflect shuriken coming at him. He went forward into a roll under a kick, lashing out with the kunai as he came up and he squared off against his opponent once more.

Kurenai was pushing him to his limits. She was going only Taijutsu, something she was far above his level at, and she was using her own speed and abilities to make it difficult for Shino so that he was forced to dodge and keep moving to get in close. Temari was going to be just as problematic.

A second kunai shot out from his sleeve as he threw it at Kurenai, attempting something different. He felt his Kikaichu travel out of his body and into the grass blades beneath him. He then charged at Kurenai, spinning around her to get from behind. He brought up his kunai and struggled against her strength as she slashed at him when he completed his spin.

He frowned as he didn't hear about the pheromones of the female he had placed on the kunai. "You knew?" he asked

"I am a Jonin Shino-kun," Kurenai said. "And I have been working with you for the past few months."

Shino nodded, prepared to engage Kurenai once more.

Naruto moved over to Panther and Jiraiya who were waiting on him. It seemed this last part was going to be something they all would be participating in. Naruto cracked his knuckles, ready to get down to business. "Panther-sensei?" he asked before biting the tip of his tongue. "The Kyuubi said that the Progenitor's son, he called him the Blasphemer, was an abomination of nature; that his form grew because of his greed."

Panther nodded, though she would like to know how the Kyuubi knew of it. "As you know, monsters exist in the world. The Progenitor is the mix of a Vampire and a Were-creature, a Lycanthrope; in this case it's a Werewolf. In my case, it was a Panther that I somehow became mixed with." She allowed her hands to shift into the panther claws. "The Progenitor was unable to really explain to me how, or why, I mixed the way I did. I had never even really associated myself with Panthers before then. The Blasphemer, oddly fitting as it is, was also of the Wolf breed. Because we are mixed with Vampires, we can drink the blood of enemies to grow stronger and heal ourselves."

Panther sighed and exhaled softly. "The Blasphemer did a crime against Nature Uzumaki-kun. He slew a Dragon and then drank of its blood, drinking its soul from its body. Not just one dragon either, but dozens. His form mutated because of it."

Naruto looked down at the ground. He was part dragon also? "What do we call ourselves?" he asked.

Panther shook her head. "Our race does not have a name, nor does yours. Not a true name at least, humans that had encountered the Progenitor once called him a Werepyre, but there are not many that would remember that. Even the Blasphemer had a name, a Dracopyre. But again, these did not really stick that well."

So they were unknown really. Naruto nodded softly and sighed. "Let's do this. How do I control my shift?"

Panther looked to the blonde. "Your trigger had been your blood; I want you to remember that feeling that you had when you finally had blood right in your face."

Naruto nodded and inhaled trying to remember that feeling. His breathing got a little heavier, his eyes turned red. But he didn't turn.

Panther nodded softly. "We will work on that." She used her claw to slash open her forearm, blood spilling and filling Naruto's senses.

Naruto inhaled deep and felt a deep hunger. He shook and growled with pain, dropping to his knees.

Jiraiya leapt back as he watched Naruto begin to transform. Hearing about it was one thing, but seeing it was another. It was an utterly terrifying transformation. He watched Panther's transformation, looking surprised at who it really was behind that mask when she removed her mask. Her fur was sleeker and her body was made for more streamline running, hunting like the big cat she was.

Naruto's body was built for speed, but he was stronger somehow. Jiraiya flared up his killing intent, remembering what Sarutobi had said to him about the blonde.

Naruto froze a bit and turned his head. There, he saw the predator. He growled, snarling a bit, his tails straightening out. There was already an Alpha there, but this Warrior Toad, no this Toad General, it was utterly terrifying to be in his presence, much like it had been terrifying to be in the presence of the Gorilla.

The Alpha was speaking, words. His mind tried to make sense of them, but it was all jumbled and it was difficult. He tried to listen to her, but the sharp gaze of the Toad General made him want to flee. He would not win, just like he had lost to the Gorilla.

It was going to be a long bit of training.

The Blasphemer sighed deeply. His blood was stirring and he was beginning to grow bored of these shackles. "Hurry my pawn, hurry here to free me." He said as he looked at the shackles that made sure he couldn't blast his way to freedom. His father had been quite thorough.

His eyes snapped to the front of the cave and he growled low in his throat, gathering a fireball. When he saw who it was his eyes widened a bit in shock. "You!" he shouted, noticing the grey cloak flapping in the wind.

Things were really changing if He was making an appearance. The pawns had been identified and now the King showed Himself. No doubt the Progenitor's champion had caused Him to appear.

"_**You have always been good at obtaining Pawns for the grand scheme of things"**_ The figure said as He moved over to the Blasphemer's scrying pool.

A wave of His cloaked hand and the images He wanted to appear began to focus. The Blasphemer paid attention to what he was being shown. "_**It was a good choice, this Uchiha Sasuke; he will make a good pawn. He is driven by the revenge that he desires; he will seek you out for your power. I expect you to keep him on a short Leash."**_

Revenge was always a good thing to strive for when you were evil. Revenge was definitely something they could work with.

"_**I have also found the ones best suited for Necromancy." **_The pool swirled, showing four figures. The Blasphemer was aware of who they were. They were Orochimaru, Sasori, Kazuku, and Nagato.

The Blasphemer tried to speak, but was unable to, no doubt given the fact he was not allowed to.

"_**Our Death Knights, if they can be guided." **_The pool now showed the Seven Swordsmen of Mist, even though many of them were dead. It also showed Hidan,

The figure's next words chilled the Blasphemer's bones more than the icy winter. "_**And our Doom Knight," **_The pool showed an Uchiha Itachi. "_**We must make sure that he is encountered by that fool of a Paladin."**_

The Blasphemer rolled his eyes, thinking about who He was talking about. What sort of idiot made Holy Wasabi?

"_**Be forewarned however, if the Paladin finds your Father's champion, our plan will go to Hell. The Paladin is too well connected. Once he has trained our Doom Knight, kill him." **_

Neji stood in the center of a training field, breathing slowly and deeply. His Byakugan was activated and kept sharp. Tenten was out of his sight. She was controlling traps that would fling kunai at him.

His first opponent was going to be Shikamaru. The Uchiha would no doubt test his mind and his body.

"Kaiten!" Neji shouted as a barrage of shuriken and kunai came at him and he spun on the ball of his foot, throwing his chakra out of his Tenketsu. It was difficult, it was hard, and he couldn't maintain a stable barrier. He felt kunai pass through the barrier and he had to leap away.

Gaara however would be the challenge for his body. Uzumaki was fated to lose against that particular Genin. Neji would have to use every shred of training he could get a hold on to beat Gaara when they fought in the finals. His Kaiten would make sure that he wouldn't be caught by the sand.

Another barrage and he spun on his heel going the opposite direction. "Kaiten!" he shouted. The barrier was even weaker, not only was he having difficulty with the opposite direction but the first Kaiten had been draining.

He would have this technique though; he would spit in the eyes of the Main Branch by recreating their sacred defense.

It was his Fate after all.

It was two weeks into Naruto's training and he was already sick of it. It was constant belittling like he wasn't getting any better. It was utter bullshit; he could feel it in his muscles, in the way he moved. He could actually shift at will and it was a cleaner shift than before, faster too. He could control himself while he was shifted as well.

Yet it seemed like no matter what he did, it wasn't good enough for either Panther or Jiraiya. It was quickly getting on his nerves how the two kept riding his ass, no matter how hard he worked. Every time he managed to complete something, like say five hundred push-ups, Jiraiya didn't congratulate him. He simply said that they were going to go higher the next day.

He split a rock with his chakra alone, instead of praise he was told to shorten the time it took.

He finished the last set for his strikes, a combination that Jiraiya had him working on for the past few days. "There, I'm done." He said looking to Jiraiya. If he made one snide comment…

"So you have, do another thousand." Jiraiya said

Naruto clenched his fist tight and he grit his teeth. He had it. All the clones popped at once. "You know what!? Fuck you!" he shouted, finally snapping.

"I've done everything humanly fucking possible and then some for you two these past two weeks!" Naruto shouted, watching as Panther crossed her arms. "I have busted my ass working on everything you two have been having me work on without a single complaint. Yet I haven't gotten a damn shred of acknowledgement for my efforts! What sort of bullshit is this?!"

Naruto saw Panther move to say something but Naruto cut her off. "Don't you give me that fucking Humility speech! I've had you both busting my chops for every small little mistake but know what? I'm done. I don't need either of you if this is what you're going to do to me." Naruto wrenched off the weight seals and chucked them away.

Naruto tapped into his rese4rves and created as many clones as he could before all of them dashed off, splitting up so that neither Jiraiya nor Panther would be able to follow him properly.

Jiraiya watched Panther for a moment. "What now?" he asked quietly.

Panther sighed softly to herself, hating that she had to let that happen. "Give him a few hours, then we'll go find him." She promised. He needed a bit of time.

Naruto rushed through the trees, eventually shifting into his other Form. He was going deeper and deeper into the forests, away from Jiraiya and Panther.

He passed by a tree and coughed as he felt a hand hit his chest, before he was dropped to the ground harshly. He saw the spear hand coming for his chest and he rolled away from it, getting up in a low combat stance.

Before him, with his arm in the ground and staring at Naruto, was the Progenitor himself, looking at Naruto as though he was the Blasphemer.

End Chapter

A/N: Woo, that was fun. As you can see, I'm starting to expand a little bit on the story and show everyone and start showing a few of their roles.

I have many special, special things planned with this story and it's going to be fun.

Now, I had two reviewers, out of about twelve, bring up the same thing. What does age matter to immortality? This is a fair point. Now I will say that Tsunade is out of the question. She's too old and under a Genjutsu that hides her appearance. But other than that, throw me some ideas for who to pick

HunterBerserkerWolf


	3. Chapter 3

Blood Ties Chapter 3

Naruto stared down the Progenitor; fear was coursing through his veins. He swallowed his heart that wanted to be in his throat as he took his fighting stance, the one Panther had been teaching him. He couldn't beat the Progenitor, not as he was.

He stared the creature down; his sharp eyes saw the scales underneath the fur, lining the arms and legs. It seemed his son's tyranny had passed down, no matter the precautions he had taken in making sure it would never spread again.

"I'm sorry boy." He said, closing his eyes and steeling himself for what he had to do. He would have to take the life of a child. He dashed forward with the intent to kill.

Naruto stared as the Progenitor charged. Naruto growled before he charged himself, ducking under the swing and going for a spear hand, aiming for the Progenitor's chest. If he could just get a shot in, one quick lightning fast lethal blow, but it was not meant to be as the Progenitor grabbed his forearm and snapped it like a twig, getting Naruto to cry out in pain as the bone was sticking out of his arm.

Surprise flowed through him. The boy felt pain? He had seen his Son's thralls take far worse wounds than that and not even make the slightest notion that they were in pain. "What is your name boy?!" He shouted. '_Please, have a name boy. Have a name for both of our sakes.'_

Naruto winced a bit more at the booming voice. "Uzumaki Naruto." He said looking to his bleeding arm. The Progenitor surprised him by letting it go, like Naruto had passed some sort of test.

The boy was not a thrall. But he was of his Son's blood. Yet he had a name. He pierced the boy with a look. "Transform back." He then reset the bone in the arm.

Naruto winced. It was going to suck having a broken arm. It wouldn't heal in time for the Chunin Exam Finals either. But he did as he was told, transforming back into his fleshy form. He was surprised when he looked at his arm and it was perfectly fine. "Woah…" he said as he tested the arm. Not even a bit of pain remained.

"Strip." Naruto looked at the Progenitor when he said that, his face snapping to the black wolf head with amber eyes. "Strip down to nothing boy or I will be forced to kill you."

Naruto didn't hesitate a second time, instead removing the tatters of his clothing, even the boxers. He held his arms out, wondering what the Progenitor wanted.

He walked around the boy, touching a bit of the boy's flesh, making sure he wasn't missing anything. "No bites, no claw marks…" he whispered and thought about it. There were no scars on the boy's body that would have belonged to his son.

He stepped back and motioned for Naruto to get dressed once more. Was this the same blonde from those years ago? Why did he look so familiar too? He could have sworn he saw those defiant eyes before… "How old are you Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Thirteen." Naruto answered as he finished getting dressed, staring at the older creature, the older monster.

"Do you know what you are?" The Progenitor asked, leaning in.

Naruto bit his tongue. "I know a name that is no longer used. A Dracopyre, like the Blasphemer."

He gave a short bark of a laugh. Yes, that was a perfect title for his son. "How long ago did you ascend?" the boy was already able to control his shift and his instincts, it was a good sign.

"Two weeks." Naruto told the Progenitor who recoiled like he had been smacked in the back of the head.

"Two weeks?" he repeated. His own son had taken two years to get where Naruto was. He had seen creatures centuries older than Naruto take longer to get the transformation down. Even his daughter had taken much longer to get used to the transformation.

"And do you know who I am boy?" he asked.

Naruto bit his tongue before shaking his head. "You are the Progenitor of the Werepyres, but no I do not know you."

"A name of a race that has dwindled down to near nothing." He said before pausing for a moment. "I am called Wolfwing." He said and held his head higher. "My son, the Blasphemer, is known as Nightbane. You claim to be a Dracopyre. When you ascended, you should have been called to my son, to free him from his prison. Yet, you were immune to his call, and he most certainly would have called out to you. I am curious as to how."

Naruto offered a shrug. He had no idea. "Perhaps it has to do with the fact I have the Kyuubi sealed inside of me." He offered as way of explanation.

Wolfwing nodded, thinking on Naruto's words. It was certainly possible; the Demon would have undoubtedly tried to purge the virus from Naruto's body except that it couldn't be destroyed once it entered the blood stream. Perhaps by the efforts of the Kyuubi, not only had Naruto not changed for nearly a decade, but he had changed into something more. Even still, the blonde was considered a Dracopyre.

"How did you become infected?" Wolfwing had a theory, but he wasn't entirely sure.

Naruto offered a shrug. "This is the first time I've seen you, I never knew Panther-sensei until two weeks ago, and I've never met this Nightbane."

Wolfwing nodded, yes that sounded about right. Then his theory would likely be correct. "Allow me to explain how _I _believe it happened." Wolfwing said and motioned the blonde to sit. "Eight years ago, I had fought Nightbane and lost. He left me impaled upon a tree, a tree that you had ended up under from running for some reason."

Naruto frowned a moment, remembering that day so many years ago already. He remembered tripping on a root and ending up blacking out only to awaken in a hospital.

"I am immune to Nightbane's virus. It is a powerful thing that can consume all. Every single thing he wants to, he can infect: Werewolf, Vampire, Human, even a Werepyre. During my fight with him, we were both wounded and we both used our respective powers to regenerate our wounds. I managed to get onto his back and drink deep from his throat, his cursed blood flowing through my veins and in my stomach." Wolfwing thought for a moment. "When I was impaled upon that tree, one of the branches was shoved through my stomach and it drained me of the blood that I had drunk from my son."

Naruto's eyes widened. If he had ended up under the tree that Wolfwing had been impaled upon… Naruto looked down as realization hit him. He was wounded on his shoulder and he had laid in both Wolfwing and Nightbane's blood. Naruto looked to his hands for a moment. "Am I a Werepyre turned Dracopyre, or a human turned Dracopyre?" he mused aloud.

Or was he some sort of new monster, twisted and changed because of the Kyuubi? Naruto sighed and put his hands into his face. He had adjusted well to becoming a monster, but it was still so much to take in.

Naruto inhaled and slowly let it out. It didn't matter if he was a monster or not. He was still Uzumaki Naruto, he was still going to protect his precious people and he was going to be the best damned Shinobi to have ever existed. This new power was but another tool to use to go towards his dreams.

Wolfwing made a slight sound with his mouth. "Stand up boy, show me your stance." Wolfwing then stood up and entered his own fighting stance, wings spread slightly, feet spread with his right foot back a bit. His hands were lower, claws at the ready.

Naruto got up and shifted before he entered a similar stance making Wolfwing frown. "That style isn't suited for you. Who taught it to you?"

Naruto frowned, thinking he had been sabotaged. "Panther-sensei, I don't know her name just that she turns into a Panther Werepyre."

Wolfwing looked a little surprised. "So she survived all these years, I am impressed. I understand why you were not taught the proper style. She wouldn't have known it." Wolfwing moved over and corrected the boy's stance, making him lean over a bit more and crouch some more. "Your tails are longer, they will allow you more balance, use this to your advantage when running. This style is more for speed than for strength; though you have much of it I am sure."

Wolfwing adjusted the boy's strikes a little bit getting the boy to practice them some. Wolfwing nodded, pleased with Naruto's movements. He paused a bit though as he watched Naruto's strikes. "I have one last thing I can assist you with Uzumaki Naruto." He said

Naruto straightened up and followed Wolfwing to a large boulder. Wolfwing turned and looked to Naruto. "You're going to shove your arm, up to the shoulder, into this boulder." Then, as a demonstration, Wolfwing shoved his arm up to his own shoulder, the rock moving like it was water for his spear hand.

Naruto stared in a bit of awe as Wolfwing removed his arm from the boulder. Naruto didn't think he could duplicate the feat. He went to the rock and inhaled slowly. His fingers were flat and he drew his hand back. He drove his hand forward, driving fingers through the rock. He only made it up to the elbow however before he couldn't keep going.

Wolfwing yanked the arm out. "No, that's not good enough anymore boy. You must imagine your arm ripping through the rock, you must imagine that it will bleed and die!"

Naruto drew his hand back and with a new spot, he drove his arm up to his elbow once more. He winced in pain as Wolfwing kicked him in the back, his face bouncing off of the rock. It hurt like one mean bitch.

"You're still not good enough boy. What is wrong with you? What is making you so hesitant to strike!?" Wolfwing asked. "If you are worried about broken bones, stop! If you are worried about your hand becoming crippled, stop! You must sacrifice your body, you must believe in our gift and curse!" Wolfwing shouted and yanked Naruto's arm out. "Every time you shift, your body will heal all the damage done to you unless it is something that cannot be regenerated: Eyes, brain, missing heart, spinal damage and burns. If your arm gets crippled, shift to human and lop it off before changing back! If your throat gets torn out as a human, shift and heal it! We do not abide by the regular rules that a human must. I want your arm in that boulder!"

Naruto inhaled before he exhaled, preparing his had once more, going for a new spot. He cleared his mind; he thought about the boulder bleeding, he thought about it screaming in agony. Naruto swallowed a bit; he had never killed which made this all the more difficult. Sheer brute force, that was all it required and his boy had it in spade. He just had to draw it out.

"Our bones get tougher, our blood circulates faster, and our claws get sharper. Wound your body, let yourself get stronger." Wolfwing commanded. "Your bones can be as tough as steel or as weak as bones."

Naruto secluded himself, deep inside of himself. He remembered that feeling when he rushed at Zabuza. He had sought his headband and he had gotten it, no matter the injury sustained to his body. Naruto shifted his foot into a wider stance.

He thought back to his fight with Haku, to his fight with Orochimaru. Both times, he had thrown his body recklessly into the challenge, seeking to aid his comrades even if they didn't appreciate the help.

Naruto's eyes flashed before he drove his hand into the rock. His shoulder didn't even make it to the boulder before the rock cracked and shattered outwards, the force of his strike unreal. Naruto barely recognized the pain in his fingers, or the wetness on them.

He had shattered a rock on his third attempt. Wolfwing was amazed by the raw strength of this boy. He had one final test for the boy. "Naruto," Wolfwing got the boy's attention. "I would like to offer you my power." He said and straightened himself up, watching the blonde. "Your enemies will flee, you will be the strongest to have ever existed, and your dreams could be yours."

Naruto thought about it for a moment, the brief seductive caress of offered power sliding through his mind. He could become Hokage, the final Hokage for Konoha. His power would be more awesome than anything else in existence, only to continue to grow.

Naruto tightened his hand into a fist though before shaking his head. He no longer wanted to be Hokage. He didn't care who knew his name or didn't. He looked to Wolfwing. "I'm sorry, but I must decline. If I'm going to become powerful, I want it to be on my own merit. I want to grow stronger through struggles, through training and hard work. If you gave me power, my powers wouldn't be legendary, but yours." Naruto said.

Wolfwing chuckled softly before it became a full blown laugh, a laugh he hadn't enjoyed it sometime. He clasped the blonde on the shoulder. "I will leave you a present at your home, something to work on in your spare time. Make them yours, and enjoy them." Wolfwing turned and walked off a bit before crouching and taking off into the sky.

Naruto watched the mighty progenitor fly off and grinned a bit before turning and starting to walk away. Things seemed different to him, especially now that he admitted to himself that he didn't care if he reached the Kage position. He would be as strong as one, even if it meant he stayed a Genin.

Besides, who wanted to be an eternal Kage anyways? It wouldn't be fair to everyone.

Naruto began to head back, staying in his shifted form. He was growing to be comfortable in it. At first it had been hard, what with all the enhanced abilities and senses, but now it was rather… comfy.

Naruto came to the clearing where he found Panther and Jiraiya and sighed. It seemed like they had been gearing up to move out. No doubt to abandon him.

"Uzumaki-kun, you're back. We had just been about to leave to go find you." Panther said.

Naruto scoffed a bit at the obvious lie. "Quit it, neither one of you wanted to train me. You don't like me, yet you're being forced to train me."

Jiraiya frowned and it was obvious that Panther was mimicking the action. Panther then walked up and Naruto tensed a little bit, expecting to be hit. What he hadn't been expecting was for Panther to hug him. "I'm sorry Uzumaki-kun that you have come to this conclusion." She whispered to him.

"We didn't like what we did, what we had to do. But we needed to see your breaking point; _you _needed to see your breaking point." She said, squeezing him and putting her head on his shoulder. "We were harsh on you; we treated you like dirt to tear you down." She said and squeezed him tighter feeling him stiffen. "And I'm terribly sorry for that. I know sorry can never fix what we did." She said and Naruto felt something wet sliding through his fur and against his chest.

"And you surpassed every expectation." She said, her voice wavering a bit, telling Naruto that she was crying. "Two weeks, you went through two weeks of verbal abuse until you finally broke. You received no praises, no rewards, nothing at all for plowing through the intense training we gave you, training that experienced Chunin would have difficulty maintaining.

"We only wanted the best for you Uzumaki-kun, you are stronger than either of us could ever be and the things you did were sheer miraculous. You have split a rock, a rock!, with nothing but your chakra. Experienced Chunin don't even start that and they start with a Leaf." Panther plucked one from a tree and handed it to Naruto. "Do it, please."

Naruto looked to the green leaf being held out to him and he took it. He flexed his chakra and watched as the leaf was split into eight separate parts. Had there really been a purpose to such harsh training?

"We pushed your mind, your body, your spirit to the breaking point and watched as you tried to rebuild yourself every day. You can do things experienced Chunin would have problems with." Panther stepped away and looked down for a moment before looking up. "We weren't training you to be a Chunin Uzumaki-kun; we were training you to be a Jonin."

Naruto recoiled like he had been slapped. He was trained to be a Jonin?

"The only thing holding you back is experience and the lack of a second Chakra element that you've trained. We've been slipping in tactics all through your training; even Jiraiya's maneuvers are advanced. We've been building your pain threshold, your chakra control and reserves. Everything you've done was to prepare you, to harden you to be a Jonin." Panther sighed slowly and looked him into the eyes; Naruto knew she was looking into his eyes. "But you never lost who you are and that is something I could never say how proud I am for. When you make Chunin, and I know you will, we, both Jiraiya and I, will have Hokage-sama also tell you who your parents are."

Naruto bit his tongue. "That would mean you both know who they are, right?"

Jiraiya nodded solemnly. "That's correct, but whether you like it or not, Konoha is a military organization for the most part. We answer to orders. If the Orders have been to not tell you who your parents are…"

Jiraiya didn't need to finish for Naruto. Naruto wasn't some naïve fool, neither were his two teachers that blindly followed orders. There had to be a good reason that they wouldn't tell him who his parents were. Likely his parents had enemies both within and outside of Konoha. But that also raised the question on why neither Panther nor Jiraiya would tell him. Naruto's mind began to go through the things. "You both were friends of my parents." He said suddenly.

Two nods were his answer; they were obviously letting him go through the information himself.

So, Naruto thought about things. Panther was an ANBU; she had more missions outside of Konoha than most would believe. Not to mention, she told him that her identity didn't matter, that she was always Panther. Jiraiya was Konoha's spy master. That meant the man was constantly travelling around the area and Naruto wasn't stupid enough to believe that his identity as a Demon container wouldn't get out. Jiraiya would be constantly hounded, more so than he already was due to his reputation.

So, they had been friends of his parents but unable to take care of him. That was understandable enough. Naruto wasn't happy about it, but he managed fairly well himself.

But that left the question as to why they wouldn't tell him his parents' identity. It left a bad taste in his mouth. Were his parents really that famous?

Naruto sat down and began to think, thinking about all of the famous contacts of Jiraiya. Tsunade was out; she hadn't been near Konoha for two decades. He had been born in or near Konoha; Sarutobi never really gave him a straight answer. Orochimaru was out, the snake Sannin would have recognized him as his off-spring and likely wouldn't have done something to mess with his chakra control.

Sarutobi was out most definitely. He hadn't remarried and his wife died when Naruto was born, past the stage for menopause. It would have taken a medic of Tsunade's caliber to have an unnatural conception at that point.

Hanzo the Salamander was out as well. The warlord was in Ame and the place was on lockdown, with the exception of the odd Shinobi performing missions, and that meant the leader had to stay in Ame to keep it locked down. The lockdown had been in effect for fifteen years too, making it longer than Naruto had been alive and conceived for.

That left Jiraiya's Shinobi team and the only famous one of that was the… Yondaime… Hokage…

Naruto palmed his face and gave out a low groan. "Fucking Hell, really Karma?" he asked no one in particular. How did he never connect the dots himself? His father's face stared him in the face every fucking day!

But Naruto had been an idiot, a complete and total retard for the past several years. It was only when his mind had been trained and when he sat down and started to really think on things that he managed to figure it out.

Naruto roared before lashing out with a kick at a tree and sighing deeply as he tried to get himself back under control. Naruto turned and walked off once more, clenching his hands tight. He needed to cool off. Oh he was going to hit someone for this bit of information eventually, likely Jiraiya, but that was still not something he enjoyed finding out.

He had the world's fastest and most famous dad and that person was taken from him the day of his birth. What a bitch.

Had Naruto stayed a little bit longer, he would have noticed that when he kicked the tree, it was felled as though a razor sharp blade tore clean through it and eight other trees in the vicinity.

A man walked down one of the open roads, heading towards the village. "When every day is the day of the dead/ and the army of Darkness is after my head/I've got to stay strong and I've got to do right/ I have to slay the undead with the power of light" He was singing an upbeat tune as he walked.

The man was dressed in fine, heavy protective armor of gold and silver. The gold parts were around his wrists, his biceps, his shoulders, his knees, and it formed around the middle of his torso with a line coming up along his sternum. He had a red cape on his back that swayed with the wind a bit.

He hummed the next part as he kept on walking, though he slowed his pace up. He could feel that he was being watched from the trees, and he saw a 'wounded' individual in the middle of the road. He could tell it was a trap. He was meant to be drawn by the wounded one and the rest would come out and blitz him.

"Sir, you've got to help me, please. My leg, I think it's broken." The man clutched at his leg, right at the knee.

The man sighed a little bit before he knelt down and dropped his burden to his side. He needed both hands for this. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before he was overtaken by an ethereal glow. His hands touched the leg momentarily before he rolled back from the knife aimed for his throat. Several more bandits came from the trees and he quickly found himself surrounded.

He still hummed his little tune as he counted up the bandits, about a dozen in all. One of them walked over to the item that had burdened his shoulder earlier. "What's a pretty boy like you need with a piece of hardware like this?" the man asked as he clasped the handle.

It was a beautiful gold and silver double sided axe that glowed with a white light. It had been a gift from a friend before he undertook this mission. The man frowned as he saw the bandit try to lift it, but the axe was much heavier than he could have possibly anticipated.

The bandit gave it up. "No matter, I'll just grab it once we've killed you." So they weren't going to try and rob him. It was expected given his armor.

One from the side came at him, but he wasn't helpless without his trusty weapon. He caught the wrist and twisted, snapping every wrist bone in one move. He then drove his palm into the man's knee, making it give a sick snapping sound. He then backhanded the bandit in the side of his head and caught the next one with a round house kick that instantly knocked him out.

He grabbed his cape and swung it up to another bandit, throwing dust into bandit's eyes. The man then slammed his full body into the bandit and while he was down, he stomped on the bandit's ankle, breaking it.

He was caught from behind but he flipped his attacker over his body and drove his fist twice into the man's ribs, breaking them. He was grabbed by two from behind and he felt a dagger get slid under the plates of his armor and into his side. He winced briefly but he powered through the wound. He grabbed the two bandits that had grabbed him and he smashed their heads together before slinging them down to the ground.

A sword was swung at him and he dodged, ducking under the swipe. He dodged to the right of a vertical slash and he deflected the attack with his bracer, making the blade slam into the ground. He swung his elbow into the bandit's face, making the nose and some of the facial bones break.

He rushed forward at the one that tried to lift his axe and went for a slide, taking the man's ankles out. He recovered his feet quickly and drove his foot down onto the bandit's spine, cracking it. He sighed briefly before he covered himself with that ethereal white glow once more and he healed the bandits that attacked him. He swore to never take a live, even indirectly.

Still glowing, he grabbed his axe and swung it up onto his shoulder and pressed his hand against the spot where the blade had slipped into his armor, and he hissed a bit as he felt the wound knitting itself closed.

Still, he kept walking, once more humming his tune. "I've got a fistful of love and a blade made of faith/I'm gonna use it to free all the souls of the wraiths/I'm gonna fight all this evil with wasabi paste/Then the souls will be free and the land will be safe" Not quite where he left off singing, but he knew the lyrics to his song well enough.

It wasn't much longer before he came to the gates of Konoha. He noticed an increase of security as everyone was stopped and questioned about their motives for entering.

He got in line, noticing a few people staring at the fact he carried such an interesting weapon. He soon came to the two men on guard and they stopped him. When he made it clear he was a mercenary and provided the proper paperwork necessary to carry his weapon with him, they let him in once he said he was there to watch the Chunin Exams and then make a mission request for after the Exams.

He walked through town with his axe on his shoulder, deciding to get his mission request out of the way quickly enough.

"Excuse me, sir! You with the axe, I want to talk to you!"

He turned to see a bun haired girl running up to him. He turned fully and offered a kind smile. "Yes, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"Where did you get such a magnificent weapon?" she asked looking up at the golden war axe.

The man smiled a bit more fondly as he looked at the weapon. "I… I barely remember where I got it. A good friend who was a blacksmith made it for me, specifically for the work that I do." He frowned slightly. "But I thought I had lost it for many years and it was my own fault."

He remembered it well. He watched in horror as his axe, his precious weapon that he had used to slay the undead with, slowly turned black and grey, the metal twisting and looking like bones were along the sides of the blades. He howled with fury and dropped the weapon as its dark taint burned his hands.

It vanished before his very eyes, leaving him feeling angry and sore, but he purged those thoughts from himself and got a sword. It was not his axe, but it had been better than nothing at all and was easily replaceable.

"But then a precious friend of mine, before I came out on my personal mission, retrieved it for me and better yet, he made it better than new." He could still remember his friend asking him about it.

"_Hey, I need to talk to you about something my friend." He looked up to see his friend, dressed in the armor of the Paladin, walking towards him._

"_What do you need?" he asked his friend, always willing to help his friend with questions especially when it came to his Paladin work._

"_I want to know all you can tell me about the Doom Weapons."_

_He blinked at his friend's request before his eyes hardened. "While I have stayed my hand, and my tongue, about you dabbling in Necromancy as well as becoming a Death Knight, I cannot stay idle if you seek out those particular weapons. They were vile things, vile corrupting bastardizations of the weapons they had originally been. Worse yet, I am responsible for the creation of one of those Vile weapons. If you seek out a Doom Weapon, I will have no choice but to put you down. Permanently." He hated telling his friend this, but so far he had walked a very careful line between right and wrong, between light and darkness._

_A Doom Weapon would surely thrust him into the darkness that even his friend would be unable to fight against._

"_Be at ease," his friend said, touching his shoulder. "I seek the Doom Weapons for a reason other than to use them." His friend offered him one of his grins. "I seek to purify them and hopefully purge some of this darkness infesting my soul."_

_He couldn't help but grin with his friend at the thought of purifying one of those vile weapons._

"Of course," he continued his tale with the girl. "My friend sort of gloated when he received my old weapon, not that I could blame him for gloating with a fine blade like this, and he used it for several years before I left."

"_I hear you're heading to the Eastern Continent. That's dangerous right?" his friend asked_

_He finished his packing, using a spell a blue mage had taught him to make his things appear in the armor of his thigh. "It is my friend, but our brothers in Iron have sent me a letter, they have found one of the greatest evils to ever exist. You were not there for his tyranny. You did not see races rise up to defeat him."_

_His friend offered a wry grin. "Sorry, I was up North helping out with a dragon infestation at the time."_

"_Do not worry my friend; I understand the need to help our Dragon slaying friend. But Nightbane," he shuddered a bit. "That was an evil monster the likes that make even the corrupted dragons seem nice and polite."_

"_I see," his friend seemed to be in thought about something. "How long will you be gone for?"_

"_I might not be coming back." He whispered to his friend before sighing. "Those in Iron are unable to actively hunt in the other nations around them. Their country is purged of the evil undead, but if they cannot enter other lands without causing a war, then they need someone that can. I have to help the country."_

_His friend nodded before he dropped his own magical backpack. He removed a golden and silver axe from it that glowed. "Freshly sharpened my friend, and upgraded to the next level." It came with a parcel and instructions. "I wish for you to have it."_

_He looked at his friend's gift. "Thank you my friend. May the light be on your side when you battle the undead." He stuck his hand out. He shook his friend's hand, surprised by the stronger grip._

"If you'll excuse me," he told the bun haired girl. "I have matters I must attend to." He then began to walk off towards the tower.

He missed his friends terribly; they were a constant in the storm of life that he had gone through.

The man found his senses directed to the training grounds and he began to walk towards the locations. He soon began to walk over the lush green fields and between the thick forests. The trees reminded him a bit of his home and he couldn't quite keep his smile off of his face.

He walked deeper into the forests, still following his senses. He lowered his battle axe from his shoulder and kept it from dragging along the ground. He began to slide his feet a bit as he walked, allowing for him to walk from toe to heel a little bit more. He was silent and not even his cape scraped across the ground.

He had remembered this horrible feeling, he remembered that vile tyrannical feeling of oppression that Nightbane had. Had Nightbane escaped? He felt his breathing getting a little shallower, fear gripped his throat but duty pushed him on. Courage would guide his feet, righteousness would guide his hand.

He came to a tree trunk and hid behind it as best as he could, looking beyond to the creature that was making his senses go haywire. It was certainly not Nightbane; nothing he could say or do could convince him that it was. Nightbane was very prideful about his Dragon like appearance.

This creature did not resemble a dragon, but instead something mixed with a fox.

Not to mention the fact that Nightbane would have already sniffed him out, this thing wasn't even aware of his presence yet.

"I don't think I like you looking in on me." A voice came from his shoulder and he turned, swinging his fist out and having it caught by a second one of these monsters.

"Nightbane spawn!" the man said as he blasted out his Holy Power, watching as the creature in front of him was destroyed in a puff of smoke. He then whirled around the tree, axe in mid swing. The creature ducked under the initial swing and went to punch him in the gut, but he was a veteran. He leapt away and prepared himself, His body glowing to match his axe.

"Why are you attacking me?" Naruto asked this strange warrior. If this was an assassination, then he was going to be pissed about it.

The warrior blinked. 'You speak, you even sound annoyed. Do you have a name?"

Naruto grumbled slightly about everyone asking him his name recently. What sort of bullshit was this? "My name is Uzumaki Naruto." He said

The warrior grinned before he relaxed his stance, his axe on his shoulder. "In that case, I would like to call you friend. You are not one of Nightbane's thralls, your power is enough to make him wary and he would try to kill you if you had such a power."

Naruto relaxed a bit and looked at the man before he shifted back to his human form. He noticed a tenseness leave the man at Naruto shifting back. "Then what are you? What's your name? Do you know Wolfwing?"

The man nodded. "I do know of Wolfwing, even if we do not see eye to eye. I am a Paladin, a Holy Warrior in a constant crusade against the undead: zombies, necromancers, reanimated skeletons, reanimated zombie food, vampires…" He shrugged a bit as though part of his list made perfect sense. "As for my name, I'm Artix von Krieger!"

"Damn! Damn that Paladin!" Nightbane roared out as he jerked against the unmoving chains that pierced his arms, legs, his body, and even his throat. "So many plans, ruined!" he shouted as he tried to drag himself away but the chains were unmoving.

"_**All is not quite lost. We must move more carefully now Nightbane, but all has not been lost just yet." **_From the grey cloak, Nightbane watched Him draw out a set of daggers, black obsidian and silver, they also had skulls on the pommels. "_**You just need the right leverage over the boy. We must corrupt him away from the path of that Paladin. Or… Yes, that too is always an option."**_

The scrying pool swirled and soon began to show an image other than what was real time. Crimson armor, skulls as pauldrons and on the knees, a skull at the front of the waist, a black dragon's skull was emblazoned upon the chest of the armor. But it was the face that made Nightbane grin. Oh yes, that was always an option as well.

Artix made his way towards the Hokage tower, his axe on his shoulder. He was required to check it in however when he entered so he set it down on the wall beside the check in station. It was a rather heavy weapon and he doubted many outside of himself would be able to even lift it, nonetheless carry it.

Artix made his way up the stairs, his armor giving him away as he walked. This was intentionally, telling everyone in the building of his approach.

He paused at the secretary that was quite obviously a Kunoichi. Artix could almost smell the poison lacing her fingernail polish. "Excuse me Ma'am; I have an appointment with the Hokage." Artix said politely and the woman glanced up at him. He was waved in and Artix began to walk past her, heading inside and watching the aged warrior at work.

Artix stood to the side, already feeling the presence of four more warriors in the room, undoubted Shinobi charged with the assistance and protection of the Hokage, ANBU if he remembered his lessons correctly.

Oh how he wished his mage friend was able to come with him to assist him in this endeavor. But unfortunately the Blue Mage had more pressing matters to deal with, things that Artix wasn't even going to try and attempt to figure out.

Finally Sarutobi looked up from the current paperwork and looked to the brown haired young man in front of him. "Ah, you must be Artix." Sarutobi had been expecting this meeting for some time; it was an interesting thing for a person to have such an interesting name and title.

Artix took this cue to step forward and take a seat. "I am. I am… in need of assistance Hokage-dono, a mission request if you will." He said

Sarutobi took out his pipe, it was his office damn it, and he lit it up while putting it to his lips. "Continue." He said, puffing on the pipe a little bit.

"I would like an escort to the Land of Iron; unfortunately, I have none of this continent's currency. I would be willing to do work as a mercenary if in exchange." Artix said. No one had the currency used over here; it was mostly gold back home.

Sarutobi puffed on his pipe for a bit, thinking. He had an idea; Jiraiya had been telling him about how Orochimaru was mobilizing for War. Sarutobi even had a good idea of when the attack was going to happen, after all Orochimaru wanted nothing more than to kill his Sensei.

"I might have some work for you to do," he said and began to get the appropriate paperwork. "However, I have a few other requests, besides a little mission for me in two weeks."

"So long as they do not go against my code of Killing, I will perform whatever task is necessary." Artix could have gone to the Land of Iron himself but where would the fun in that be? He was in a major ninja village, might as well take advantage of what was available to him.

Naruto collapsed onto his hands and knees, panting heavily as sweat dripped off his body. He was trying to train his body without the use of his Dracopyre form once more. He wanted a day to himself, to get his bearings before he went back to training with Jiraiya and Panther. Would he trust them as much as when he had first started? No, not likely. But they were still offering to teach him, to teach him a few special things also.

"_**That was magnificent young Shinobi; it was quite the brilliant performance."**_

Naruto was up on his feet instantly, looking to a man dressed in a tan cloak that covered his head and face in shadows, red eyes looking out at Naruto. Something stirred in his blood, something he wasn't unsure about. He shifted his hands into his claws, more deadly than any kunai in close quarters combat.

"_**At Ease young Shinobi, I mean no harm. I come baring… an offer." **_The Mysterious Stranger waved his hand to the side and dual daggers made of obsidian and silver appeared, floating in midair. "_**I offer you these weapons of power, things I have no doubt you will make more famous than your father's Flying Thunder God Technique."**_

Naruto flexed his claws a bit. "How do you know who my Father is?" he asked.

The Mysterious Stranger waved the weapons away, allowing for them to disappear. "_**I know many things young Shinobi. I even know who was there the night of your birth; the man that caused the events to take place, leading to the death of your mother and father."**_ This was partially because He gave the power to control the Kyuubi to Madara who gave it to his little apprentice. He had then directed Madara's little apprentice to the correct place. After all, how else would Madara's apprentice have found out that the boy's mother had been the container of the Kyuubi? Him.

Naruto growled a little bit, his scales sliding up along his arms before the coarse fox fur began to grow out of them as well He was moments away from completely shifting into his Dracopyre form.

"_**I offer you power and knowledge. Come to the Dragon's Maw guarded by the Three Iron Wolves. Tell no one of this, or my knowledge will forever be outside of your grasp, something I have the power to make sure of."**_

The Mysterious Stranger then walked backwards into the shadows before disappearing. The pawns needed to be moved and the stronger pieces needed to be positioned before the real battle happened.

Naruto watched the man walk off before going into a full transformation, roaring in anger to the skies. A flock of crows took to the skies of Konoha as Naruto grappled with what to do.

Chapter End

A/N: Sorry guys about this chapter, it's been a bit of a rough one. I'm happy to say that most of the Chunin Exam Finals, if not all of it, will be done next chapter and then it's on to the Invasion and we begin to go even further out of Canon.

So Naruto and Sasuke have both been told to go to Nightbane's prison and Naruto grapples with the promise of the Doom Weapons.

I decided to also go with all the names of anyone coming in from the Artix Entertainment games.

I have figured out a few other things as well, stuff that will be important to the coming chapters, I have a plan and we should start seeing things happening in just a few chapters.

Hunter Berserker Wolf


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Okay, this is where I am going to take a bit of time and answer a few concerns that have shown up in my reviews.

Sasuke becoming a Dracopyre: I won't say one way or the other if this will happen or not. All I can say about this is that this point will be a pinnacle point for Itachi, not Sasuke. Strange, I know, but when it happens likely next chapter or two, then all will make sense

Naruto receiving the Doom Weapons: Another plot point. I won't say one way or another if Naruto will receive them. But the offer is meant to be there… it's a thing of temptation, a set of daggers to help him become great, tools to use to further his legend like Minato's Rasengan or Flying Thunder God technique. It's not power being given to him like Wolfwing had offered.

Naruto's Teachers: For what I have planned, both the harshness and the intentions behind it were necessary. After all, the path to Hell is paved with good Intentions. Also, they were trying to get him ready for the cruel, cold reality of things. No great leader or General, whether evil or good, had gotten to that post without being under some person at some point in time and sometimes, the person you are under is not a nice individual.

Elements from Artix Entertainment's Adventure Quest and Dragon Fable: I realize at this moment, this fic seems rather… Dark and that's not the general tone for either of Artix Entertainment's games. I don't want everything to be peaches and rainbows because let's face it, in both games they weren't peaches and rainbows. Just look at the original Dracopyre War in Adventure Quest, look at the Final 13th quest line in Dragon Fable. Both events were rather dark. Just because I'm starting out dark does not mean it will remain dark.

Any characters that I might bring in from either of those games are a sort of a coin flip at this moment. Nightbane, Wolfwing, The Mysterious Stranger, and Artix are all definitely in. Will I bring in the likes of Sepulcher, Aria, Zorbak, Xan, Warlic, and Cysero? Who knows at this point.

I am also well aware of the fact that Dragon Fable happens before Adventure Quest. For now, the story lines and quests of those games are not as clear cut in this story as for this game. All I will say is that it is happening somewhere in Book 3 for Dragon Fable and Adventure Quest I haven't a clue.

Pairings: Hmm, I still haven't decided yet and I sort of want to keep you guessing on your favorite characters actually. I do have a bit of a plan for two girls, but I won't say a thing as to what or who they are.

I hope I cleared up some of the concerns within my story, but remember this story is just getting to its fourth chapter, allow it to develop a little bit more before you make a final judgment on the story.

Oh! One last note, I fixed a few previous chapters, adding in scene breaks to clear up some confusion anyone might have had and changing the line-up for the Chunin Exams.

Chapter 4

It was finally time. It was time to put all of his training to use. He rolled his neck a little bit, cracking it and then his back.

He began to get dressed, moving slowly as he did so. Grey loose fitting pants went on his legs and he planted a foot on a chair. He began to wrap the loose pants legs up with grey bandages, tying them off firmly. A set of grieves went on his shins and the upper portion of his feet, seals etched into the metal. A gift laid out upon his door step. He left his feet bare, choosing to go mostly barefooted.

A loose grey top was thrown over his shoulders and came down to his mid-calf muscle, his arms fitting through the sleeveless holes. He gave it a tug, letting it hang loose on his body, exposing his chest that had been built from all the hard work he had done.

A matching set of metal bracers that covered his forearms, and came out over his hand a piece of string looping around his middle finger before it went down along his palms. Seals were etched on them as well, another gift from a different sender.

He picked up his last gift, debating it for a moment before setting it back in its resting place. Now wasn't the time for that.

Naruto turned and walked out of his apartment, taking to the rooftops. His footsteps barely made a sound as he dashed across them.

Naruto was surprisingly second to last to arrive at the Stadium of the exam hopefuls. Of course, it was still early and people were packing in so he wasn't late. He moved over to stand at one of the ends, beside Sasuke. "I thought you'd be late." Naruto said, looking forward, his arms tucked behind his back.

"Funny, I thought you'd stay home." Sasuke said without missing a beat, looking over at Naruto. His Sharingan activated, showing a third Tomoe in his right eye.

Naruto looked over at the Sharingan for a moment before snorting. He opened his hand, purposely making his fingers flick against his thumb. In the palm of his hand was a mini-tornado. This time, Sasuke snorted.

The Gauntlet had been laid down. It would be the Sharingan versus Naruto's Wind Manipulation.

Two competitors for Naruto and Three for Sasuke and they'd face in the finals, just like they wanted it to be.

It was another twenty minutes of standing there in relative silence among the Chunin Hopefuls before a different Jonin stepped forward. He introduced himself as Genma and showed a change in the rosters, Dosu had been removed but the matches were the same.

All it meant to Naruto and Sasuke was they each now had two competitors to face before they faced off against one another.

"First round is Uzumaki Naruto versus Sabaku no Gaara!" Genma called out. "Will all other fights please proceed to the waiting box?" Once the other six got shuffled out, Naruto moved away from Gaara who looked absolutely murderous. He stayed about ten feet away, both looking into the others eyes with focused intent. "First round of the Chunin Exam Finals, Begin!" Genma shouted, leaping out of the way.

Naruto leapt back from the lash of sand that would have thrown him into the side wall. A pellet dropped into his hand from one of his bracers, unsealed from around the wrist area. He then threw it down, the pellet making a sharp crack sound as well as a bright flash of light.

Naruto was still standing in the same spot he was when he threw it down when it faded.

"Idiot! What are you doing!?" Sasuke shouted from the waiting box. "You're meant to vanish if you use those!" That was basic stealth tactics 101.

Kunai came from behind at Gaara and the sand rose up, stopping them before they exploded, scattering the sand. Senbon were launched from another spot and another angle, shuriken were thrown from yet another. The sand was sluggish to catch up, having to reform.

The Naruto that had stayed in the center of the arena dashed forward. He moved around, dodging the sand spikes that tried to catch him as more projectiles continued to bombarded Gaara at random areas, even from above.

Naruto got into Gaara's defense by sheer speed and acrobatic prowess. A rising upper cut hit Gaara's chin, a loud echoing sound emanating from the point of impact. Amazingly enough, Gaara was flung airborne, his jaw broken and sand coming off of him as his sand armor was blasted apart by it. Gaara hit the ground and didn't move just as the Naruto that had slugged him disappeared in a puff of smoke, the pain from having its hand broken dispelling the clone. The sheer force of the hit having broken bones in both the clone and Gaara had also rendered the Sand Genin unconscious.

Naruto walked out from the shadows, appearing just as easily as he had vanished. He walked over to the slightly glowing form of Gaara and knelt down beside him. Naruto opened one of Gaara's eyes, faced with a black and gold eye that had a cross shaped pupil. Naruto's eyes turned crimson and slit for a moment, his features turning a little more feral as he tapped into the Kyuubi's chakra. "Do you really want to attempt that?" Naruto asked the Bijuu trying to take over. Soon the eyes turned back to normal, but blank.

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto!" Genma shouted.

One punch. One punch had been all it took.

Gaara had been beaten, without fail, in one single punch.

Temari couldn't help but stare wide eyed as Naruto made his way back to the competitor's box. There was that sort of monster in the Exams? But he had been an idiot during the first test and before the second one. But… the Preliminaries he had turned into that feral beast. Was that a sort of demon?

Apparently no one else knew what was going on either as the other Konoha Genin, with the exception of the Hyuuga, surrounded and tried to wrangle information out of Naruto.

Apparently he hadn't been a monster that long since his friends didn't believe he had that sort of strength or skill before.

Naruto held up his hands, trying to settle all of them down. "I will explain how I beat him with one hit if you all give me some room." He said and soon they were moving out of the way. Naruto walked over to a wall, rubbing it a bit with his hand. "It's pure brute force actually, no chakra involved whatsoever. But the mentality is what's important. It's a sort of mentality of not caring how hurt you get." He said and placed his finger-tips against the wall, drawing his hand back. "Only succeeding in your goals." He drove his hand, up to his elbow, into the wall. He didn't have near the raw power as when he was shifted to punch up to his elbow through the wall.

He drew his hand out, showing the mangled fingers. "Seven bones in my hand are broken, two of them being incomplete fractures." He said. Naruto then focused on the hand, willing it to turn into his Dracopyre claw, the transformation happening smooth now and without so much pain. Almost immediately, he turned his hand back to normal and flexed his fingers, even flipping Sasuke off much to the Uchiha's ire, to prove that his hand was back to normal. "There's no finesse to the technique, just brute force and surpassing the limitations the pain has set up. Our bodies don't want to strike as hard as we can; we'll tear it apart if we could. It's only when we stop recognizing pain or adrenaline is rushing through our veins that we can strike as hard as we can. It's stupid to do for most people, but for someone with a healing ability like mine…"

Naruto had trained the last two weeks on his transformation control and being able to punch as hard as his body would allow him. Despite his comfort in his Dracopyre form, he didn't want to rely upon it for the Exams.

Of course, Shukaku listening to Naruto was something else in its entirety that Naruto hated doing.

It turned out that his Dracopyre form could handle a lot of the Kyuubi's power, as in seven tails worth of power. The current theory between Naruto, Kyuubi, Artix, Panther, and Jiraiya was that when the Kyuubi attempted to continually destroy the Dracopyre Virus, he kept mutating it with his chakra. The Virus never quite fully got destroyed by the chakra and continued to grow and grow. When the merger finally happened, the Kyuubi's chakra was mostly in sync with the Dracopyre virus, a synchronization that would continue to build up until Naruto could control all nine tails of the Kyuubi's chakra, even go so far as to turn into a Kyuubi so long as he stayed, at the core, in his Dracopyre form.

When Naruto had been training that, it was a day Gaara had sought him out, likely to destroy him. Naruto had told Gaara to leave, that their fight would be a public spectacle so everyone would fear the winner.

Gaara had left without a word when Naruto had said so.

Temari spoke up; she had a question to ask. "How hard did you hit Gaara?" she asked hesitantly

Naruto thought about the question and how best to answer it. "There are thirty bones in a human's arm from the shoulder down to the fingers, not including the shoulder." He said simply. "If I had been the one to punch Gaara, I would have twenty fractured bones that would be some extent of simply cracked all the way to shattered." He said

"Then there are the muscles torn, the ligaments and tendons torn as well, had I been the one to hit Gaara as hard as I had and I didn't have my healing factor…" Naruto thought for a moment. "I would have to be retired from being a Shinobi because my arm would have been absolutely crippled."

Naruto held up his hand a moment, staring at it before shaking his head and going to sit down.

"Proctor!" Kankuro called out and held his arms up in the form of an 'x'. "I forfeit." He said not even stepping into the ring

Genma pressed the palm of his hand against his head a bit. "Winner and Advancing to the Semi-finals: Nara Shikamaru! Round Three: Aburame Shino versus Sabaku no Temari. Are you forfeiting?" he called up to the Genin.

In a swirl of sand and leaves, both Shino and Temari made it down to the arena about ten feet away from one another. Genma nodded at the two's grit and determination. "Round Three, Begin!" he called out jumping out of the way

Shino started things off by throwing a barrage of Shuriken and leaping to the side. Temari predictably swung her battle fan, batting away and blowing away the barrage of Shuriken. She saw the kunai with an explosive tag and swung her fan the other way, sending another gust. It knocked the kunai away, but a second was thrown soon enough she wouldn't be able to swing her fan at it and knock it away. As such, the kunai ripped through her battle fan, punching a neat hole through it.

Shino stood up from his crouched position holding the ram sign. Temari was surprised by the slight explosion on her fan before she stared, shocked at the sight of it burning. The flames met with iron and were quickly extinguished. Temari snapped it shut and took a stance to use the fan almost like a staff of some sort.

She rushed at Shino and swung it, surprised when the Aburame leapt up onto her battle fan and landed on it, soon jumping off of it and forcing it to the ground, throwing her off her balance. A sandal hit the top of her head and she soon stumbled a little bit as Shino landed behind her. She was then surprised when he used his entire body, throwing his back against her own and fully pushing her onto the ground.

Shino spun on the ball of his foot and knelt down, putting his palm onto Temari's back and letting his friends spill out over onto the Suna Kunoichi, his bugs already eating at her chakra. Shino stood up a kunai in both hands. "Forfeit." He said, prepared to knife fight with the girl.

Temari grit her teeth, the bugs didn't bother her but she could already feel her Chakra draining. "Proctor, I concede." She said a bit angry at herself. All three of the Suna Nin were defeated in the first round, quite decisively.

"Winner and proceeding onto the Semi-finals, Aburame Shino!" Genma shouted out, looking to the young unorthodox Bug user.

Shino turned and walked away, his bugs flying over to him and going back in through his sleeves and collars. Kurenai had pushed him to his limits, learning how to use his body in an unorthodox manner. His Sensei had made a logical argument. If an opponent was familiar with his family's abilities and mind set, they would expect to fight someone logical. So he had to come up with a work-around for this.

He would fight unorthodox.

Shino trained himself to dodge, to leap, to take a roll, to take a hit. He trained to use his entire body. He could have done anything after he knocked Temari off balance: a dropping sweep with a rising uppercut, placing his bugs on her body that way, a turning slash to her back across the hypochondriac regions, anything and anything could have dealt a decisive win in either competitor's favor.

Luck was quite the factor in matches.

Orochimaru silently grit his teeth up in the Kage booth, sitting next to Sarutobi. He had… not expected the Suna Genin to already be disqualified, but perhaps it was for the best. They would have more time to rest and heal.

He calmed himself, attempting to remind himself when the Invasion would occur. He was letting it go on, even though Gaara was hurt, so that Sasuke would draw upon the Cursed Mark. Neji would block the Tenketsu, making Sasuke have less Chakra to use. Even Shino would be beneficial, eating at Sasuke's chakra with his wonderful bugs.

Then there was Naruto.

The thought of that wonderful body, that wonderfully shifted form, was enough to cause Orochimaru to salivate. It looked like it could take quite the abuse; it would be perfect to experiment upon. Naruto would weaken Sasuke and be weakened in turn by the blonde haired Genin. Both would be ripe for the picking.

There was just one major snag in his plans thus far.

Orochimaru looked over towards the man that stood as a silent vigil for Sarutobi. He was armored and wore a crimson cape; a heavy golden battle axe was head down onto the tile rooftop, the body guard's hands resting on the shaft. The man had been silent and completely still the entire time. Orochimaru knew he would be a problem on strength alone.

The axe had crushed the tiles of the roof creating a small crater but the man had held it without the slightest grunt or waver of his grip.

Still, Orochimaru didn't feel any Chakra from the man; he shouldn't be too much of a problem.

"Quite the exceptional Genin you have this year Hokage-dono. Though, I will speak with Kankuro about this upset. I had hoped he would at least try against the young Nara." Orochimaru said to his Sensei, trying to act the part of the Kazekage and succeeding quite well.

Sarutobi chuckled a little bit. "I will admit both Naruto-kun and Shino-kun surprised me with their fights. Really, I mean, Naruto-kun knocked out Gaara-kun in one shot and Shino-kun practically danced around Temari-chan." He said and took an inhale of his pipe. Sarutobi shook his head a little bit. "I'd like to see them both fight a little bit more personally." He had been surprised at Naruto's methodic destruction of Gaara personally.

Naruto learned the Sand's movements and learned that it had difficulty reacting from a multi-formed barrage from every direction. He threw in a few kunai with exploding tags to make sure that the sand was scattered and sluggish.

Then his clone rushed in using superior speed and reflexes, dodging an offense that the sand couldn't really support or risk, and then Naruto caught Gaara right under the chin with that punch of his. To be honest, Sarutobi wasn't sure if he could take the same punch, either giving it or receiving it.

Sasuke and Neji stared each other down at the arena. Sharingan was matched against Byakugan. Both were hailed as prodigies, both were hailed as Geniuses. Both were first time takers of the Chunin Exams.

They both barely heard the call for it to begin. Sasuke rushed in, going in for a low sweep of the legs only to roll as Neji leapt over and tried for a Tenketsu at his shoulder. Sasuke whipped a kunai out from his arm warmer and turned, slashing at Neji with it, a thin line of red appearing on Neji's chest from the Kunai while Neji's hand had managed a leg.

Sasuke felt his leg a little bit, he could still run but it was okay. He wasn't going to be resorting to That move here. Not against a comrade. Kakashi would have his ass.

Sasuke flipped away from another strike and threw the kunai, spinning to give the throw a bit more oomph. He even gave it a touch of lightning manipulation to make the kunai streak across the distance.

"Kaiten!" Neji called out, spinning on the ball of his foot and bringing up his barrier, the kunai bouncing harmlessly off. Neji hated having to resort to that so early, but he wouldn't have been able to dodge it fast enough and it had been aimed for the muscles of his thigh.

Sasuke went through hand signs while Neji was spinning and he inhaled. "Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique!" He exhaled the fireball, letting it streak over towards Neji who just finished his spin.

Neji felt the heat of the fire shortly before he saw it and he dodged to the side, rolling with it and throwing out a few Shuriken at Sasuke. He wasn't Tenten, but the bun-haired girl had at least made sure he and Lee could hit seven times out of every ten.

Sasuke drew a second kunai and blocked the Shuriken thrown at him before rushing forward, drawing a second one. He then did an unsurprising thing and tossed one kunai to Neji who caught it awkwardly, having just enough time to bring it up to clash with Sasuke's kunai.

Sasuke slashed, jabbed and blocked and parried when he needed to do it. He had essentially forced Neji into a knife fight. By giving Neji the knife, Neji was forced to fight at Sasuke's level because Neji couldn't use the Jyuuken, not without risk of having his hand cut.

Neji parried a strike in a circular fashion and spun forward with his free hand, getting back into the movements of close quarters combat. He yanked his hand back when Sasuke had drawn yet another kunai and slashed at his hand with it.

Neji hissed a bit and was forced on the defensive, using the kunai to deflect both of Sasuke's. Neji struck at Sasuke's wrist with a Jyuuken strike, paralyzing the hand. He paid for it when Sasuke drove a kunai through the palm of Neji's hand and caught the other kunai while he spun, slashing Neji's thighs with the second one.

Sasuke rose up from his crouched position, parrying Neji's kunai and slamming his shoulder into Neji's chest. The point of his elbow drove into Neji's trachea and Sasuke watched the Hyuuga drop, gagging a bit. Sasuke pressed the kunai to the back of his head, ready to drive it into his skull.

"Winner and advancing to the Semi-finals: Uchiha Sasuke!" Genma shouted seeing Sasuke had Neji dead to rights. "We'll have a ten minute intermission, please use this time wisely." He told everyone as Sasuke headed back to the waiting box and Neji was taken away by the medics

After the short ten minutes, Shikamaru made it to the arena at his usual sloth rate. Naruto landed from the competitor's box and waited, crossing his arms over his chest.

Shikamaru looked lazily upwards, even as he heard Genma call for the match to begin. He crouched down and put his hands into the rat sign, his shadow streaking over to Naruto. The blonde didn't even move. Shikamaru caught Naruto's shadow and yet the blonde still looked so damned calm.

Naruto inhaled before he stepped out, bending his knees and driving his fists apart like he was breaking something between them.

Shikamaru paused and put his hands together with his fingertips touching. His eyes closed for a moment before he stood up. "Proctor, I forfeit. I don't have the power to beat him." Shikamaru shook his head, muttering a bit as he walked off the field. It would be suicidal to take on Naruto.

He wasn't stupid or crazy.

Naruto turned and walked away, heading back up into the Competitor's box. He was… eager. He smirked as he looked at his shaking hand. He squeezed it tight. He was excited by the prospect of fighting Sasuke.

The one person that had constantly hounded his every accomplishment at the Academy. Everything he had ever done had been shadowed by Sasuke.

"Second semi-final match: Aburame Shino versus Uchiha Sasuke!" Genma called out. "Begin!" he moved away from the two.

Shino stood still, his entire frame completely still as he watched his opponent. Shino seemed to be pondering something for a while. "Proctor, I wish to forfeit. If I defeat Sasuke-san, I would be no match for Naruto-san." Shino said before turning and making his way out of the arena. It was illogical of him to fight once more. He could tell how both Sasuke and Naruto were eager for their fight.

If it meant giving them a better match by allowing Sasuke to be closer to one hundred percent, so be it.

Orochimaru silently seethed at the fact the Aburame gave up against Sasuke before they could even fight. So be it. It would make for a better match at least. His fingers dug into the arm-rests a bit more. "Your Genin seem a little Lack-luster now Hokage-dono." Orochimaru said.

Sarutobi chuckled a little bit. 'Perhaps, but their reasoning was sound. Shikamaru-kun would never be able to deal with Naruto-kun's new-found speed and strength. Shino-kun would be hard-pressed to fight Sasuke-kun and then Naruto-kun with little of his colonies left. After all, Sasuke-kun is an Uchiha, a clan renowned for their use of fire Ninjutsu." Hardly state secrets.

Artix had a slight smirk on his face, even though the Kazekage made his skin crawl, a feeling down along his spine that disgusted him. Like the feeling the undead back home usually caused him to have. "I have seen Uzumaki-san in action; I have seen his strict training taking place. There is no finer warrior among these candidates."

"Oh? Any surprises that I might be in for?" Orochimaru asked from underneath his disguise.

Artix smiled a little wider, remembering when the young boy asked for a little bit of training. Artix would never be able to teach him how to heal, but other aspects of a Paladin's training were not out of reach. It would be interesting to see if the blonde pulled out some of the bigger moves.

Genma felt the ebb and flow of the crowd. He could hear the whispers about how Naruto had made it this far, he could hear people making bets on who would win. Naruto had such steep odds against him. As a Proctor, he unfortunately had to be completely neutral in the coming conflict or else he might have betted on Naruto winning the upcoming match.

Naruto was still relatively a black-horse in the match up. No one knew what he could do, no one knew if that transformation he pulled in the preliminaries had been a onetime deal or something he could learn to control.

The strength he displayed during his first match had been utterly impressive, but no one was sure how he did it other than the experienced Jonin knowing he had used a Shadow clone as a sacrifice for the strength technique.

Genma smirked a little bit as he decided to give the match a little bit more hype.

"Here we are ladies and gentlemen!" he called out. "We have Konoha's two finest Genin, standing face to face in the Finals of the Chunin Exams! One on hand, we have Uchiha Sasuke, last loyal member of the Uchiha Clan, renowned users of the Sharingan Dojutsu! He graduated at the top of his class and has trained under the Copy-Ninja Hatake Kakashi himself!

"On the other hand we have Uzumaki Naruto, the under-dog to these Exams. He's Sasuke's teammate so he too has trained under Hatake Kakashi and he's known as Konoha's Pranking King, I for one hope to see some of that unpredictability in this upcoming match. He graduated at the very bottom of his Academy Class," Genma said. "It's the Genius versus the Under-Dog folks!" he looked to the two Genin waiting, staring at one another. "Final Match: Uzumaki Naruto versus Uchiha Sasuke, Begin!" he shouted and leapt back.

"Sky Tearing Claw!" Naruto shouted, slashing out with his hand and starting big as five blades of wind ripped through the ground and air at Sasuke.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Fire Technique!" Sasuke spat out five fire balls, one for each 'claw' of wind. He was surprised when the wind ripped straight through his fire and kept coming. He braced himself, unable to dodge having gone for the offensive that should have worked. He felt two cuts along his shoulders and arms, blood dripping from the relatively shallow cuts.

Any closer and he would have been cut to ribbons.

Sasuke moved out of his braced position and dodged out of the way from a palm strike from Naruto who had come in fast and low. Sasuke whipped out a kunai and began to slash at Naruto who dodged and slashed at him with his own hands which still were held like claws.

Sasuke felt one such claw brush over his hair as he ducked under one and instead drove his kunai into Naruto's leg, hoping to give himself a little breathing room. He leapt back, trying to get some breathing room. He held up the Tiger hand-seal, having reduced his technique to just one hand sign from his training. It just took a little more chakra. "Fire Release: Grand Fireball technique!" he called out as he breathed out the fire like a flame thrower.

Naruto yanked out the kunai from his leg and picked it up. "Tearing Sky Kick!" he shouted and swung out a powerful kick in Sasuke's direction.

The air blade, thicker and wider than the ones from his claw, instead moved over towards Sasuke at a faster pace, ripping through the fire and parting it in front of Naruto.

Sasuke disengaged the technique and leapt away, throwing Shuriken with some ninja wire attached. He sparked some lightning composition along the wires, allowing him to move them faster and aim them at Naruto a little more.

Naruto saw the shuriken and brought up his arms, deflecting them purposely into the ground with the bracers he had on his wrists. Naruto smirked a little bit, holding his arms up. He placed his hands about shoulder width apart

"It's starting." Artix said excitedly from his position. He had difficulty standing still but he managed. He wanted to see the progress that Naruto had made.

Naruto began to glow with ethereal power, white surrounding his hands and he looked up at Sasuke, his blue eyes practically glowing. "I was shown a few techniques that are different than Jutsu, try to keep up." He said before thrusting his hands skyward, a blast of light launching from his hands.

The ball of light went high into the air before it broke apart, shattering and launching into thin white rods. Naruto didn't have the control or the practice yet to fully form the Swords of Eternal Light. The light rods spun around before they launched at Sasuke.

Sasuke ducked and dodged around the rods, noticing as they would veer off from hitting the ground before turning and moving to circle around Naruto who had rushed in to engage him in hand to hand combat. Sasuke was able to barely parry the rods by using his kunai and electrifying it with his lightning chakra. He wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer.

Naruto caught a kunai through the hand and used his other hand to drive his fist into Sasuke's gut, the rods of light launching with his fist and passing through Sasuke's stomach. They didn't do anything more than give him a slight jolt, but it was enough.

Sasuke dropped to the ground and vomited on the ground.

"Winner of the Chunin Exam Finals: Uzumaki Naruto!" Genma shouted out just seconds before an explosion engulfed the Kage Box.

A blast of sand knocked away a group of Oto Nin who had leapt to attack Naruto and the blonde turned to see Gaara, leaning against one wall panting with his arm outstretched. "Stay the hell away from him." Gaara moved out, his sand helping him move despite his exhaustion.

Naruto ripped through a wire net that was aimed for him and Sasuke and helped the Uchiha to his feet, going back to back. "I don't know what's going on, but we need to work together."

Gaara moved to press his back against Naruto and Sasuke's shoulders, causing both boys to look to the redhead. "I hold no loyalty to anyone anymore Uzumaki. But if you were to die, I would never know how you got so strong."

Naruto nodded in understanding before he looked at the group of Oto and Suna Nin that surrounded the three young teens. Naruto gave a feral smirk. In an explosion of power Naruto instantly shifted, his form turning massive. "Storm Rending Claws!" Naruto slashed out with his claws, but unlike the Sky Tearing variant, these were much more powerful, cutting the Shinobi to ribbons and even gouging out the stone behind them. Naruto then crossed his arms over his chest, as though daring the others to get close.

Sasuke felt a primal fear sliding down his spine at the brief glimpse he saw of Naruto's transformation. Worse yet, the wind blades that Naruto had ripped the sky into had completely destroyed the Suna and Oto Nin in front of him. He formed two hand signs, ending on Tiger. "Blaze Release:" Sasuke inhaled, channeling fire and lightning in his lungs, an idea he had gotten just from seeing the man that offered him power. "Great Destructive Fire Technique!" Sasuke exhaled sweeping his head. The lightning sped the fire along and enhanced the flames to higher temperatures, burning his way through the Oto and Suna Shinobi. It took a lot out of him, evident by him falling to one knee when he finished it off, but he took out a fair deal.

Gaara held his hands at his side, drawing them back for a moment before thrusting them forward. Spikes of sand launched out of the ground at some of his attackers, one even got launched into the air only for the sand that had done so to rip him apart. While his sand was in the air, Gaara swirled his hand, forming it into a cloud and bringing his hand down, making the sand rain down, each drop mixed with the blood of his first victim coming down at high velocity, quickly tearing through more.

The three young teens looked to one another before moving off to secure the rest of the village. Gaara had his own reasons to be helping them it seemed.

Sarutobi watched as Orochimaru finished his Edo-Tensei technique. He had managed to stop the Yondaime Hokage from being revived at least. Artix had been knocked away before he would have been able to help stop the summoning.

The coffin lids fell forward and the Shodai and Nidaime Hokage stepped out of their respective coffins, looking quite dead. Before Sarutobi could even open his mouth though, a golden ornate spear of light shot past him and ripped through the Nidaime Hokage, turning the revival to ash. The spear flew through the air only to go behind Sarutobi, back to the waiting left hand of Artix von Krieger.

Artix lowered his head, a scowl on his face at the sight of the dead being reanimated for such uses. Even Orochimaru's use of another body was a form of necromancy and Artix was quite angry. He could feel his blood boil, calling out for him to eradicate all forms of Necromancy. "BATTLE ON!" he yelled out as a war cry before he dashed forward, aiming for the last of the reanimated dead.

Orochimaru was surprised at the power of the warrior, Zaku fell out of the ashes of the Nidaime Hokage, dying from his injuries that he never had healed, simply stabilized for this single point. He quickly drove the sealing kunai into the Shodai Hokage's head. "Handle Sarutobi's guard!"

Orochimaru quickly regurgitated his sword and picked it up, going after Sarutobi and trying to press his luck before the old man could summon Enma. Despite Orochimaru's more refined Snake Style, Sarutobi's Monkey Fist style seemed tailored to dodging and weaving through his strikes.

Sarutobi's breathing got a little labored but his body was on the fight response as he struck at his old student with everything that had made him a Kage level Ninja, something no one got to by being a specialist. Sure, he preferred Ninjutsu, but he could fight a Kage Level battle in Taijutsu alone, it was just a little more difficult to be honest. He wished he had Enma.

Still, that didn't mean he wasn't unprepared. From a seal in his armor, Sarutobi released a black bow staff that extended out and he began to swing it around, using it to strike the side of Orochimaru's sword to deflect it. "Pity Orochimaru, your Kenjutsu needs work that you won't ever get." He said as he dodged another snake like strike.

Hashirama operated on instinct and the commands that were implanted in his mind as he fought against the warrior who managed to go toe to toe against him. Hashirama managed to have enough control over himself to keep his abilities to a more limited ability, something the warrior would be able to keep up with.

Still, Hashirama was forced to go above the abilities of the warrior due to the control the Snake Sannin had over him. He tried to keep his Jutsu to a minimal, using only his Taijutsu and hoping the warrior in front of him would be able to dispatch him like he had done to his brother.

Artix swung his axe and cut through a tree that had been brought up before him as a defense before he turned, throwing his Spear once more. He glowed once more before he called upon the real Swords of Eternal Light, a dozen fully formed swords forming around him and circling. He caught his spear on the rebound once more and he leapt over the tree at the red armored warrior.

He swung the spear once more and the warrior dodged only to be struck by the Swords of Eternal Light. The warrior mouthed a thank you to Artix before he fell to ash, the young girl that had been the sacrifice for him quickly coming out of the red armored warrior's body. The young girl was breathing and Artix checked her as best as he could before he turned.

Artix tolerated Zorbak's necromancy because the Moglin wasn't that much of a problem. His skeletons offered a decent challenge for the Heroes of the other Continent. Artix cared too much for Vayle to ever want to cause her harm but she had gone underground, likely practicing the dark arts where she would never be bothered.

Artix would not tolerate Orochimaru's Necromancy.

He held his spear high over his head and the Swords of Eternal Light began to swirl around the tip of it. The Paladin reared back his arm and threw the spear with all of his might, the light forming into a single point and offering a screech like some sort of predatorily bird as it took the shape of a phoenix. It ripped through Orochimaru's body, coming out of his chest before the light burst apart into the air, particles of light raining down over the battle scene.

Nightbane snarled as he looked into his scrying pool before he tried to focus himself into control. The actions of the Paladin had been most unwanted but they were not to be unexpected. Seeing Naruto use the Paladin's powers gave Nightbane a few ideas for when they finally met, but he could wait on that.

He dug his claws into his hands until his blood dripped onto the icy cave, quickly being absorbed by the spell his father had placed there so that his blood wouldn't travel to some poor creature. His fury was getting harder to reign in. Mistakes were happening and they were things they couldn't afford.

"_**What is getting to you Nightbane? It is a minor setback. It's not like we cannot reanimate Orochimaru." **_His words rang true with the Lord of the Dracopyres, but it was still a setback. Nightbane hated setbacks. "_**Allow him to stew in the afterlife, when he is brought back as a servant for a time Orochimaru will become quite the valuable asset, able to jump into Death's Realm for secrets that we can ill afford to go for ourselves. Besides, he will be placated when he is brought back, he will have the answers to his dream."**_

Nightbane snarled a little bit before he calmed down, remembering the entity before him was far stronger than he could ever hope to be. The boy, Uchiha, however was quite the catch of a pawn. He remembered when he had done something similar with his fire and lightning magic as to actually breathe it out.

Nightbane wondered what else he was capable of but decided to hold off on finding out. "So, the invasion was a planned failure. Your… imprints on Sarutobi… do you think they will hold with the Paladin there?"

"_**My Dear Dracopyre Lord, I know they will hold. Remember, I am the reason that Iron is a Paladin Nation. Just a few little pushes in the right direction and the Paladin will come to Iron with a complete entourage. The more witnesses of your power the better don't kill more than necessary."**_

Nightbane's grin was dangerous as he leaned back into the shadows once more. He always was so kind to Nightbane. If everything worked out, he'd get a few pawns and a meal.

Life was going to be good.

End Chapter

A/N: there you have it folks, the end of the Chunin Exams and the Invasion. This is a minor event that will start on things to come. The next few chapters might upset a great deal of you or make you happy depending on how you feel about certain characters.

Anyone want to guess what Naruto's mysterious third gift is? Here's a hint: It's from Artix.

HunterBerserkerWolf, Out.


End file.
